Boiling Point
by Sqydd
Summary: Due to a severe misunderstanding printed in Sorcerer's Weekly, Lucy goes out with Loki to eliminate the idea that she's dating Natsu. How does he feel about it? Well, he rightly went to kick Loki's ass. Or the story in which Natsu reaches his boiling point, because no one steals from a dragon.
1. in which natsu thrashes a lion

**» chapter one**

 **» in which natsu thrashes a lion**

* * *

Natsu had been breaking into Lucy's apartment long enough to recognize the sounds and scents of it: spices and smoke, for instance, meant that she was just enough done with his favorite chicken soup and he was right on time; nose-tingling lavender and off-kilter humming meant she was enjoying a forty five minute-long bath and he had just enough time to read her latest manuscripts; on that note, drying ink and weary sighing meant she'd just finished another story, but if she gave a dreamy sigh instead, it was some gooey lovey-dovey spiel and he should steer clear. The day after a long mission in a nearby farming town, however, he found something he hadn't encountered for a while; rightly so, the artificial citrus and new clothing scent threw him off until he saw Lucy dancing around her bedroom.

"Natsu!" she said with a wide smile, clapping her hands together excitedly. He raised his eyebrows, curiosity piqued: usually she wasted no time in berating him for using the window. Today she was wearing a dress just white enough to be new that curved her body like a second skin as well as lots of jewelry and makeup.

"Why're you wearing so much crap?" Her eyebrow twitched but she didn't let his comment damper her mood.

"I'm going on a date."

Oh, okay.

"A date?" he repeated as she dabbed her cheek with something red.

"Yes, a date. That's what girls do."

"Yeah, but…you never have dates." This time she frowned, giving him a cross look.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you never have dates? I thought I was pretty clear?"

"B-Because I wasn't on the market!" she protested. "Not because I couldn't get one!"

"I didn't say you couldn't," he said, putting his hands up in surrender. She simply huffed and turned back to her mirror. Her going on a date sucked—that much he could remember from the few she usually had. He couldn't follow her, even if the restaurant had the _best_ food, and she always had the window locked until she returned, and even when she did return—most likely late into the night—all she could do was _gush_ about how perfect her date was, best case scenario. Worst case scenario, she groused and huffed about it and randomly snapped on him the next few days. Suffice it to say, the whole situation wasn't good on Natsu's end.

"Well, anyway, I'll be heading out," she said, straightening and fluffing her hair. It was down, he noticed, and fixed into lots of wild curls. He wanted to make a joke like she glued a bunch of screws onto her head, but it…worked with her. He actually found himself going speechless for a couple of seconds before bringing his mind back to earth. _Uh, what?_ he wondered. _I've seen Lucy go on dates lots of times—why is it different now?_

"Who're you going with?" he asked without really thinking. He expected one of the typical, forgettable names—Julius, Ethan, Mick, something like that—but that night, Lucy was full of surprises:

"It's with Loki."

"Loki," he repeated. "Like, our Loki."

"Yes."

"Flirty, lion-head, glasses-wearing, your Spirit?"

"I think we already confirmed that it's that Loki."

"But…oi, Lucy," he said when she tried to sweep past him. She turned with a curious eyebrow raised. "You've been pushing him off for…since forever, so why're you going out with him now?"

"I'm not trying to be rude…really, I'm not…but why is it your business?"

"Well, it's not, but… I wanna know," he said. She sighed, debating it for a moment.

"There was… _something_ in Sorcerer's Weekly." He wrinkled his nose in distaste.

"That stupid magazine you read every month, with the _Perfect Guy_ test and all?"

"It's not stupid! And that's not the point!" She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then opened them with an annoyed look. "I'm going to be late. I promised to meet him at 8Island. Just ask Mira and she'll tell you."

"What?" She continued glaring at him and he relented. It was never good to pester Lucy when she had a date waiting anyway…even if it was Loki.

"And one more thing?"

"Yeah?" He was feeling a little sulky, but Mira would surely shed some light on the situation.

"Get out of my house!"

* * *

"Can I borrow your Sorcerer's Weekly?"

"Why?" Mirajane asked, an amused smile on her face. "An interest?"

"Yeah, kinda. Lucy mentioned something to me and I wanna check it out." Her smile grew to creepy levels.

"I think I know what you're talking about," she said, reaching under the counter. He perked up immediately.

"Really? Ah thank you! It's been messin' with my brain all night!" She handed the issue over, already on the accursed page, and went to deliver drinks to a table.

"I hope you find it… _enlightening_ ," she said cryptically, winking an eye. He stared blankly before bringing his attention to the magazine. Meanwhile, the gears in Natsu's head started turning.

 _I don't see the problem,_ was the first thing he thought, scanning the page. It was an article, and the cover photo was him and Lucy on a bench near the canal. He was sleeping on her shoulder and she was looking at him, but that was really it. "I don't get it… What's wrong here?"

"Depends on how ya see it," Cana commented, leaning in to scan the article. "Ya might see it normal, but some normal guy'd see a girl and her boyfriend."

"Her…what? That's crazy!" Among other things. "Lucy's my best friend."

"Uh-huh," Cana said, skeptical. He turned the page and found an entire article, like a solid two and a half pages, on Fairy Tail's "star couple," about how they kept their relationship professional until they were "behind closed doors," and a line he didn't quite get about if he was a dragon "down there" too. (Ridiculous; he wasn't _actually_ a dragon. What kind of idiot wrote that?) That was as far as his skimming went.

"Ooh," he breathed, "I get it now."

"Hmm?" she hummed, a drunken smile on her face. "What do you get?"

"Lucy went on a date 'cause she doesn't want people to think _we_ are together." He understood, but he didn't like it—what exactly was wrong with him that she'd rather be seen with Loki? She got all dressed up for him too, makeup and jewelry… He didn't like that crap anyway, but it looked like she put in three times the effort just for that lion than every day with Natsu. "Isn't that it?'

Before Cana could respond Natsu pushed away from the bar, catching Lucy's scent just outside the door. She came in _giggling,_ and Lucy didn't giggle often, but he quickly saw what was so funny: Loki. He was in his normal, human clothes, and he had his arm around her shoulders, talking to her with a grin on his face. If Natsu cared enough, he would've listened closer, but as it was he watched them from the weak perspective of a normal person as they went to a booth, still laughing over whatever he was saying.

"Oi, Salamander," Gajeel said as he passed, "if ya stare at 'em any harder, they'll catch on fire." He blinked in surprise; he was so absorbed in watching them that he hadn't caught Gajeel's scent right behind, and Gajeel had a scent to turn all noses. Nobody else smelled like bar food and scrapyard steel.

"Hey, Gajeel, can I ask a question." Gajeel stopped mid-step, turning towards him.

"What?"

"If Levy went on a date with, I dunno, Gray, would it piss you off?"

"She wouldn't," he said with extreme conviction.

"Okay. Hypothetically."

" _Hypothetically,_ " he repeated with a scowl (well, he was always scowling, but still), "yes, I'd be pissed off to Hell. Why?" He stopped, looked back at Lucy and Loki, then turned to Natsu with a smirk. "Ooh, I get it. I didn't think ya had the brains to be jealous, but life's full of surprises."

"Wha—I'm not jealous," he said, but Gajeel was already walking off to Levy's table. He crossed his arms over his chest with a groan; why was everybody misunderstanding him? Was he speaking another language now?

"Oi, Gray," Natsu called, dodging past the midmorning bar crowd to Gray's table. He was slowly freezing a glass of vodka with a look while Juvia worked on burning a hole in his back from behind a column twelve feet away. Gray looked up, already poised for an insult, then blinked in surprise.

"Gray," he repeated. "Not stripper, Ice Prick, Snow Queen?"

"I don't have time. Look, can—you—understand—what—I—am—saying?"

"About as well as I usually can."

"Great," he sighed. "I thought I was cursed in my sleep or something."

"What the hell's wrong with you now? —Aside from the usual."

"Lucy's—I don't know. All I know is that _that_ —" he looked at Lucy and Loki again, who were still laughing it up and having a ball, "is bothering the hell outta me."

"So she's with Loki," he said, looking over his shoulder. "Interesting."

"More like annoying."

"Oh. I get it." Gray melted the ice around his cup with a swipe of his finger and took a quick drink, licking his lips, and continued: "You're jealous that it's Loki and not you."

"Not me what? I mean, it's a one-time thing—all her dates are. She hangs out with some stupid guy for a night and it's back to us hanging out the next morning."

"But obviously that's not the case here," he pointed out. Natsu seethed quietly. "They _do_ have more chemistry than some one-night stand from the street, so it makes sense that they'd have a good connection. It might even be longstanding." Whereas it was chilly before, Gray's drink abruptly came to a boil, and he shoved it away so quickly it spilled all over the table. "Hey, flames-for-brains, watch yourself!"

"What's so great about Loki anyway?" he complained, ignoring the barb. "How come she'd rather be seen with him than me?"

"Ask _her_ that, and leave me alone before you scorch me."

"Fine, whatever." He walked off, feeling like he was coiled tighter than a triple knot. Never, ever had Lucy's love life (or what little of it she had) bothered him as much as now: usually, her dates were nothing more than a minor inconvenience, but now it felt damn near _personal._ She chose Loki over him, or at least superficially, and more than insulting, it was hurtful. Even if they weren't _together_ together, they were still pretty close after a year of NDEs and friendship, so what was wrong with the rest of Magnolia knowing how close they were?

"Natsu." He noticed that a request paper was shoved into his face—how long had it been there? Lucy pulled her hand back with a frown. "Are you okay?'

"Perfect," he said without really thinking about it. "A job?"

"Yeah. It's the kind of punch-up stuff that you like, and the reward's high enough that when you destroy the town—which you _always_ do—there'll still be enough for me to pay rent!" She hugged the paper to her chest and spun on the spot, giddy as always with the prospect of rent money. The usual sight gave him his first genuine smile all day. "Where's Happy?" she asked, calming down a bit.

"He's still on his solo mission with Charla, but Erza and Ice Prick are still—"

"Oh no," she interrupted, putting her hands out to stop him. "The reward's not big enough to cover the damage from them too."

"So just us?" The prospect was more than a little enticing.

"Just the two… Loki's coming too," she said after a moment. That stupid lion showed up as if she summoned him, throwing his arm around Lucy's shoulders with his usual coy smirk.

"This is gonna be the first mission we've done together in a while, huh, Natsu?" he said amicably. Yeah, Natsu sort of remembered doing a couple of missions with him after he joined, but his mind was a little too jumbled to focus on the memory.

"I guess…"

"I'm gonna go run this by Mira." Lucy stood on her toes to kiss Loki briefly before going towards the bar. Loki smiled a moment before grimacing, shrugging his hoodie from his shoulders.

"Natsu, you're cooking me."

"What?" He realized that, again, his magic was getting the better of him, this time leaving scorch marks in the ground from the heat, and he received enough lectures from the Master to know how much he hated those. "Oh. Sorry." _This mission is going to suck,_ he thought, watching Loki go over to the bar. Lucy bumped into his chest as she turned and they both started laughing _again._ Then he held his arm out and said something along the lines of "You first, Princess," at which she _blushed_ and smiled instead of rolling her eyes as usual. _Yup, it's gonna suck ass,_ he added petulantly. He needed someone else, a fourth person, but who? No matter how much Loki was starting to piss him off, he couldn't stand a mission with Gajeel, and she was really adamant on not taking Gray and Erza, so…

"Wendy!" he said, catching her at a table with Romeo. She gave him a surprised smile before he continued, "Are you busy? Can you go on a mission with Lucy and me?"

"You usually go on missions with your team," she said.

"Well not this time. Just—please, Wendy?"

"O-Okay, Natsu," she relented. "I'll go. But why?"

"That's why." He not-so-subtly glared daggers at Loki. Wendy followed his gaze, her mouth making a little "o."

"But I thought you were friends with Loki?"

"It's not, ugh, the problem isn't me being friends with him—we _are_ friends—but if I have to watch them being all lovey-dovey _and_ sit through a train ride, my brains are gonna melt."

"Too late!" Gajeel was happy to intercede from across the hall. Of course, Natsu had to insult him back, and that escalated into the usual fight. Also of course, Erza broke up the fight as soon as she returned from her latest mission, which involved several deep claw marks in her armor and a suspicious purple stain on her cheek. All in all, everything was normal, everything except one person: Natsu himself. He shouldn't have been as bothered he was, but the fact was that the entire day was really starting to piss him off. It pissed him off as he went to sleep that night and it pissed him off as the—ugh—the four of them set off towards the train station.

It was a joke, it used to be a damn _joke._ And the joke wasn't even going around the whole Guild—it was mostly with Cana and Mira, the usual suspects, and maybe with the Master on a drinking day, but it wasn't a thing, not really. Special events like VALENTINE'S DAY, or the Christmas party some months ago, they went out of their way to pin up Natsu and Lucy as their "star couple"—at least, that's what he thought they called them. Lucy always flushed and denied it with all the anger of a Forest Vulcan, but for Natsu, it was whatever.

Why exactly did Lucy hate that word being used on them?

For Natsu, a couple just meant "being together." Kissing and alone time was there too, sure, but the basis of it was the same, wasn't it? "Being with the person you care about most?" There was no one else that he would sleep in the same bed with, or know the scents of their home so perfectly, or bear with their _awful_ mood swings (Erza's mood swings? Hell on earth), stand side by side with through every last fight, and fight for down to his last breath and drop of blood.

Suffice it to say, then, that her not wanting to be seen as such, going so far as to pick Loki over him (not that he had any real problem with Loki; had it been anyone, even like Jet, his complaints still stand), was…confusing, among a lot of other things. He liked to believe that he was the strongest around (except Erza and Gildarts, but that had yet to be decided until their next fight), but something about the whole situation made him feel really…weak. Not just because he was on a train either. He wished he could ask someone about it, but he wasn't quite in the mood to bear with their "You're jealous!" spiel, because if he did admit that he was, then they would make a show out of them "being in love." Which he wasn't—that much he was sure about. Mostly.

"Ugh, Natsu," Lucy complained. Natsu tried to focus past his squinting and saw her disgruntled expression from down below. Had he fallen on her lap? It was hard to tell anything at the peak of his motion sickness. Up was down, inside-out was to the left, and Happy might've been pink, for all he could tell.

"S…Sorr…" He wanted to ask where Loki was, but considering that he could barely get one word out, he gave up.

"I'm envious of Wendy right now," she sighed, resting a hand just behind his ear. He tensed from the contact at first, expecting her to knock him out to avoid his whining like Erza, but she left it there anyway, and he guessed that she did it unconsciously. "Loki's entertaining her so she doesn't get too sick, and I'm here with you about to puke on my legs. Don't, by the way—this is a brand-new Heart Kreuz skirt."

 _My stomach doesn't discriminate,_ he wanted to say, but it came out more like an "Euurrrgh."

"I expected you to say that," she said dryly. "But I'm used to it anyway." He couldn't tell if it was _good_ used or _bad_ used—probably the second one, since he always threw up on her clothes. He closed his eyes and let out a short whine as the train ascended a hill, leaving his already-shaken stomach behind. He stopped a second later when, to his surprise, her fingers started moving in his hair. She pulled a little, twisted it a bit, rubbed little circles in his head, and kept it up. He looked back at her but, again, she looked distracted. Well, if nothing else, it was a nice distraction.

At least, it started out as just a nice distraction.

With his body calmed by Lucy's incredible fingers he could focus more on the sounds, and by the tensing of her muscles, so could she. A nearby pair of girls were giggling and talking about them, "Lucy of Fairy Tail" and "the Salamander" having a "lovely tryst in the middle of a train." He had no idea what in hell a "tryst" was, but by Lucy's growing anxiety, she knew all too well.

"You're fine now, so you can get off me," she muttered, pushing him away and towards the window. His head bumped against it with a weak _thud_ and he turned back towards her to see her forcefully engaging in a conversation with Loki about "how absolutely _enchanting_ giggle giggle their date was," a wide smile on her face. Natsu could tell it was fake, and so should Loki, but the passengers didn't know the difference and started gossiping about the new sight, the word "threesome" bouncing around a lot. Seriously, were they even speaking English anymore? He could only afford maybe a couple minutes more of focus before a sharp curve left him reeling, then he promptly received a painful thwacking for throwing up on Lucy's shirt. But hey, he missed her skirt.

By the time the train reached the station of their destination, a sleepy waterside village called Harmonia, he was damn near ready to kiss the rusted metal station floor, which he was about to do before Lucy choked him off with his scarf. "We're going to report in to the client," Lucy told him. "You can go get started on the Vulcans in the meantime."

"I'll help," Loki added before Natsu could even get a word in. A previously ideal picture of smashing Vulcans' faces in was ruined by Loki's perfect lion-y glow. He had a brief image of his fist making close friends with Loki's perfect face and internally blanched. Sure, he was resenting the guy, but he wasn't seriously going to fight him over _Lucy,_ who wasn't really his to begin with. She could date whoever she wanted…even if it was a guy that flirted with anything that breathed.

"You're going too?" she asked, then turned to Wendy. "You should come with me then, so when the inevitable repair bills get sent over, you won't take the blame."

"No, Lucy-san—"

"It's okay, really. At least one of them is a responsible adult that can keep themselves in check," she said with a pointed look in their direction. Natsu wasn't a mind reader or anything, but he guessed that she meant that look for Loki. "The forest is supposed to be towards the south of the village," she said, pointing to the left of them where the crosshatched road stretched between rows of plain houses. "Follow that road and you'll reach it."

"This should just take a minute," Natsu told her, his fists already lit in anticipation of crushing monster faces. He was already going down the road as fast as Erza demolishing strawberry cake. Sure, Loki was right on his tail in his black-suited, lion-headed glory, but even that couldn't damper Natsu's mood. The last few missions they had taken involved rescuing cats, retrieving stolen items, blah blah blah—this was the first fighting mission he'd had in a long time, and lion or no lion, he was going to have a ball.

One step onto the pine needled forest floor led into him being yanked up by his jacket with the meaty hand of a Forest Vulcan. It was mottled green and brown in cover, serving as perfect camouflage to the untrained eye, but Natsu could smell its stink from a mile away.

"What's up, ugly?" he grinned, causing the Vulcan to tilt its head to the side in confusion. "Meet Righty." He slammed his fist into its face, and a second later its leafy body exploded in flames. It howled in pain and dropped him to the ground, running and ducking through the thick cover of trees and bushes with a ringing call. Soon the stink of Vulcan was everywhere, and one was coming up just behind him.

" _Regulus Impact!_ " Natsu shielded his eyes from the burning golden glow as Loki crept behind him, knocking a Vulcan flat on its back with a weakening gurgle. He sighed as he rubbed his ringed fist. "At least give me time to catch up," he said.

"I did. Mostly." He turned as a ring of large ugly behemoths circled them, standing back-to-back with the spirit. No matter his personal troubles, Loki was still a guild-mate and longtime friend, someone he could always trust to have his back in a battle.

"On three?" Loki asked, giving him an over-the-shoulder smirk. Natsu returned it, finally feeling normal for the first time since the whole situation began.

"Three!" they exclaimed in unison before rushing into the fray. Nothing mattered anymore, nothing but the pounding of his heart and the sound of his breath in his ears and the tingling of his fire as it ran across his skin and scorched through a horde of Vulcans. Their pained cries, even, meant less than his own roars resounding through his head. Oh, he missed the rush of battle, and even if it was with a bunch of Vulcans, it was better than lying around the Guild hall waiting for screw-all to happen.

"Natsu!" Loki called all of a sudden. Natsu didn't hear him at first, too busy on a certain Vulcan that had just a bit more dodging ability than the others, then he noticed a rumbling laugh behind him. He whirled around, fists ready, but inadvertently bared himself for the dodgy one, which immediately seized his shoulders and forced itself _inside of him._

"GET OUT!" he roared, spinning in a wild circle and spewing flames as he went. The other Vulcans succumbed and Loki scattered to avoid the blaze, but that Vulcan's terrible laughter was bouncing around his skull. He watched his fist raise, not of his own accord, then it pounded against his chest, surely fracturing a rib. He gasped, losing his breath, which was when his foot came up and smashed the other, causing him to hit the ground. The Vulcan continued like that, using Natsu's own body against him until he was a mess of bruises and scratches and pain. Even if he had control over his magic, his muscle alone was enough to break bone.

"Lion Brilliance!" Suddenly Loki's light, all-consuming and so damn bright, filled Natsu's corneas and seared his retinas. Better, the Vulcan shrieked in pain, momentarily deafening him to the world before it left his body in a puff of magic. He couldn't tell what happened to it right off the bat, but by Loki's calmed expression, it wasn't a threat anymore. "That was the last of them, I believe. Are you okay?"

"A little banged up," he admitted, "but I wish there were more." He pushed himself to his feet, feeling just a bit unsteady, but it would pass. Loki exhaled with a smile, like he expected that.

"I knew you'd say that," he confirmed.

"'course! I'm always fired up!"

"Of course," he echoed with a laugh, then grimaced. "Not everyone can be like you though." He pulled his collar loose and Natsu noticed a burgeoning bruise on his neck the rough size of a Vulcan fist that really would hurt by morning.

"Wendy can patch that up, easy."

"I'd rather see Lucy play nurse." He got a dreamy look on his face. "That'd be a lot more interesting. You know, I'm surprised she said _yes_ to go out with me," he said while Natsu was still trying to find his tongue. "I always thought you two were an item, but you haven't even gotten jealous like I thought you would."

Suddenly it was too much to bear: _Sorcerer's Weekly_ , Lucy and Loki, the "jealous" comments. He realized now that he wasn't jealous—no, that was a _nice_ word for it. What he felt was a burn so intense it felt hot even to him, like he would burst into flames at any moment and take half of Fiore with him. He felt jealous, sure, if one was to skimp on certain details, but only because Loki was taking what was rightfully _his._ Nobody stole from a dragon; no one, not unless they wanted to get torched where they stood.

"Loki," he managed through a growl, "I'm going to kill you."

Loki might've tried to get a word in, but he couldn't speak past Natsu's fist as it buried itself into his mouth, launching him back as a projectile strong enough to shear dozens of trees. The pain within his own body no longer mattered—his focus was only on the one that had desecrated his property. He continued through the forest like a force of the gods themselves, his sandals lighting a trace of orange-gold flames and arms leaving scorched bruises upon every tree and leaf to mark his trail. By the time he found Loki he was just waking up, a surefire red bruise just beginning to form in the center of his annoyingly perfect face.

"Na—" he started, only to receive another punch crossing the side of his face. His cheek swelled with the beginnings of another bruise and his head snapped to the side so suddenly his glasses flew into the dirt. He took them up in his other fist and they melted from his body heat alone before his arm reached his face.

"Lucy is _mine,"_ he hissed, decking Loki again. He hadn't gone full out like that in a while, and not against anyone except Gray, who (as he wouldn't admit out loud) was just as strong as him. Loki was strong, but he couldn't fight back an angry dragon. He didn't have any intention of stopping, hitting him left and right, left and right, until he was sure that Loki had learned the right lesson—

"Taurus!"

Strong, large hands clamped around Natsu's arms like rope, effectively pinning him and shoving him into the ground. He growled and thrashed and spit angry fire until he heard another shout: "Loki!"

 _Oh Mavis,_ was all he could think, his heart finally slowing, his head clearing the red fog of his vision.

"Loki, are you alright?" Lucy knelt by his side in the dirt, shaking a shoulder. Her big doe eyes were full of concern and her hair was a little mussed from running. Meanwhile, Taurus kept a tight grip on Natsu, keeping his head down where earthworms could wiggle up his nose.

"Lucy-san, please make room," Wendy said, out of breath, as her little feet came into view. Lucy stood to allow her at Loki's side. She didn't use magic at first, instead making careful presses to his skin. A small pool of blood was building at the base of his head and for a terrifying second, Natsu feared he had done the irreversible. Then Wendy sighed and dropped her hands in her lap. "He has the usual injuries from one of the Guild's fights."

"Oh," Lucy exhaled. Natsu let out a long breath too. Perhaps he still managed to restrain himself subconsciously, because it felt like he was putting all his weight behind those punches. "Natsu, what the hell were you doing?" she snapped, turning her infamous anger on him. He winced and retreated into himself. "Natsu!" she repeated in her usual _Get out of my apartment!_ tone of voice.

"I, uh, sorry. I wasn't thinking." Which wasn't a lie. He was acting completely on instinct.

"You never think!"

"Okay, uh, well, you're right, but—but I really wasn't thinking. Ow," he winced, feeling his injuries catch up to him as the adrenaline faded. Wendy was already working on Loki with her magic, leaving him with all of his burning Vulcan pain. He didn't feel so weird until that Vulcan possessed him—maybe that had something to do with it? Vulcans were total perverts, after all: most likely it screwed with the first female on his mind, Lucy, and made him totally flip at the thought of her.

"You deserve it," she said, but she had sunk back into her usual half-teasing, half-tired chiding that he got every mission. He smirked, which grew into a grin as she pouted. "Taurus, you can go, he's fine now."

"Are you sure, Lucy?" he asked.

"Pretty sure, yeah." Taurus didn't even end off with a weird comment before he returned to the Spirit World, which made Natsu the most uneasy about the entire situation. Slowly Loki returned to his senses, blinking wildly before he sat straight up.

"Natsu!" he exclaimed before regaining his bearings. "…What just happened?" he said, completely baffled.

"That's what I'm wondering," Lucy sighed. _Me too,_ the man in question thought. "Are you okay?"

"Hmm." He waved his fingers over his face and his sunglasses reappeared—of damn course they did. "Hey, I've taken worse beatings before."

"Good," she smiled, getting to her feet and dusting off her skirt. "Since the Vulcans are obviously dealt with, as well as thirty percent of the forest," she said with a sharp look, "let's go and collect what's left of the reward."

"You're the boss," Loki smirked, already back to normal. It was always like that at the Guild when they had little fights, or a "Natsu/Gray" fight (which had actually become a name for serious/not-serious fights within the building): they'd fight, then after they dusted themselves off and licked their wounds they were back to normal. But this time, it was just Loki, because only Natsu knew that his problem wasn't as superficial as "his fists itched." He probably didn't even recall what Natsu said, and he couldn't blame the lion—he _had_ come at him pretty hard at first, and the back of his blazer was still wet with blood from his head.

"Natsu?" Wendy asked, grasping his arm worriedly. He relaxed under her grip—she was like family, after all, being a fellow Fairy Tail wizard and Dragon Slayer. "Something is wrong—I can feel it."

"Ugh… I can't talk about it."

"Please, Natsu? We're not best friends, not like you and Erza-san and Gray-san and Lucy-san, but—"

"It's not that I don't want to talk about it, I really _can't._ I don't even know what my deal is here. It's just… Loki said something earlier and I lost it. That's it. Happens between me and Gray all the time," he said offhandedly, trying to justify himself. Except it wasn't like between him and Gray, not by a long fucking shot.

"…Okay," she said after a while, letting it go. He followed her towards Lucy, who rightfully went to talk his ear off, but some part of him was secretly happy she had begun to ignore Loki in favor of him, even if it wasn't the kind of attention he really wanted.

* * *

 **Author's Drabble -** This is something...new for me, and by "something" I'm referring to a story NaLu-centric. For me it's always been plot characters/character relationships, I guess, but this is different. Writing primarily NaLu one-shots have been more of writing exercises to me lately because I can actually put those out on a much better time schedule than a lot of my usual stuff, but I like trying new things, so here goes. And please leave reviews you guys, I like reading reviews. They feel a lot more personal than just clicking the follow button. C'mon, even if it's just one word.


	2. in which natsu subscribes to bikini prin

**» chapter two**

 **» in which natsu subscribes to bikini prints**

* * *

"What's wrong with you?"

Lucy usually asked that question when he dropped into her home, but this time it was much more warranted and situation appropriate. He was still a little sore from the mission a couple of days ago, where he immediately began avoiding her as soon as they returned to Magnolia, and now she was giving him a scathing look from her writing desk. He only even caved when he realized that sadly, his and Happy's home had run out of food, and although he could buy some, he wasn't quite in the mood to fry bacon and boil spaghetti, the fullest extent of his cooking ability.

"I'm hungry?" It didn't help his case that it came out as a question. Lucy gave him a pretty good imitation of Erza's Stare, and it even made him gulp in fear of his life.

"Don't pretend. You and I both know what we're talking about."

"Okay… To be honest? I got no clue. Really!" he added when her stare intensified. "Loki was saying some stuff, and I just…lost it."

"What stuff?"

"Um…" He sat down on her bed, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously. "I don't think you'll like it."

"Natsu, please, just tell me," she said with a friendlier look. He sighed and crossed his arms.

"Everyone thought that you and I were together and they kept talking about I'm jealous over Loki or some shit. And, I don't know, Loki made me lose it."

"Natsu…" Her tone made him look up, then away when the look in her eyes was too much. He felt her soft fingers on his chin as she brought his face back to hers. "Were you jealous?" she asked softly. His eyes went wide, not as much from the question as their proximity.

"What— No, no I wasn't jealous," he said, which was the truth. _Jealous_ sounded so pitiful and weak, something felt when Happy stole the last fish from the fire and didn't share. When he was attacking Loki, he felt enraged, incensed, irked, infuriated…well, you get the picture. But more than that, he felt possessive. _"Lucy is mine."_ He felt like Loki had stolen something as personal as his scarf or his fire, and deserved death three times over as retribution. Even for someone with emotions as passionate and fiery as himself, Natsu was a little thrown by the thought, and involuntarily shuddered. "I wasn't."

"Mm," she hummed, staring harder into his eyes. After a moment she seemed to find what she was looking for, because she pulled away. "Okay."

"So we're good?" he asked. She gave him a smile that was just a little bit shaky.

"We're good." It didn't feel like they were, but he didn't want to press, especially when he was the one in the wrong. "I made chicken soup. Do you—"

"Yes!" he said immediately, jumping to his feet. "'m starving, Luce."

"Of course," she sighed, heading towards the kitchen. He followed on her tail, his stomach thinking of food, but his brain figured that he needed a chat with an expert on dragon business.

* * *

"Get out!" was her immediate response as he knocked. He grimaced and knocked again, harder.

"C'mon Porlyusica, do me a favor! Please?"

"No!" She may have kept refusing, but he could stay there and talk the rest of the day, which she seemed to realize, because the door unlocked soon after and he stepped inside with a smug smile. Porlyusica was working on some greenish-brown potion that made his nose itch when he took a whiff. "What are you bothering me with now?" she said after shooing him away from it.

"I got a little problem," Natsu said. "Well, it's not really little, it's more like a big problem." He tried to explain what happened with Loki but it was hard to put into words. Porlyusica, thankfully, seemed to understand.

"Instincts," she said. "It's just your dragon's instincts."

"Dragon instincts? I have those?"

"Dragon Slayer Magic makes a human as a dragon, more so over time. The most severe event, you already know of: turning completely into a dragon." He thought of Acnologia and gritted his teeth. "Igneel significantly slowed the process, but that doesn't mean it stopped all together. This, specifically, has to do with how the brain works. The fact that you can sense and process all of these different smells and sounds is because your brain evolved to understand them during your training with the Slayer Magic as a catalyst. The evolution continued as you grew, and now it's come to head."

"So this is just another gain for me?" he asked. "Like learning a new spell?" Porlyusica nodded. "But that doesn't explain why I smashed Loki like that."

"Dragons, by nature, will latch onto a suitable female, and I'm guessing your emotions towards the girl made that instinct stronger," she said passively, stirring the potion. "Because of that, you saw the Spirit's advances as a threat, and your first instinct was to deal with it."

"I don't see Loki as a threat. He's sorta annoying when he gets in that flirty mood, but he's no threat," he protested.

"This has nothing to do with rational thought. It's all subconscious."

"Then how do I stop my subconscious?"

"That depends," she said, meeting his eyes for the first time. "What do _you_ think you should do?"

He had a pretty good answer to that.

* * *

"We're gonna avoid Lucy?" Happy asked, perplexed. Natsu nodded vehemently.

"Until the end of time. Or until Ice Princess learns to keep on his shirt. Whichever comes first."

"But…why?"

"Because she's making me turn into a dragon!" he burst out. Thankfully they were alone in his house with only his junk and memorabilia as witnesses. Happy was even more confused.

"You're not… Are you hiding something from me? Do you secretly have a tail?"

"I wish, but no. Remember how Lucy started going out with Loki and I was just going crazy over it?" He nodded, following. "Porlyusica explained it to me. She said something about revolving and that it's got something to do with my brain, but—the bottom line's that as long as I'm around her, I'm gonna keep pulling dumb shit like that that gets her mad, and neither of us want to deal with angry Lucy." They shuddered at the thought. Angry Lucy meant a shoulder icier than Gray in the winter, constant flying projectiles, and no food for either of them! "So we just avoid her for forever! Easy."

"But you never run from a problem, Natsu."

"Call this a first."

"Natsu," Happy protested. "Lucy's our best friend. You can't avoid her forever."

"Sure I can. Just tie me up if I try going to her." Happy continued staring at him and he finally gave in. "'kay, you're right, I can't avoid her forever. But I don't know what to do either. If I walk in and see her cuddling up to that stupid cat, I'm really gonna beat the shit outta him."

"I know I joke about it a lot, but do you really like Lucy? Because if you do, I don't have a problem with that."

"She's my friend," he said, which he knew wasn't an actual answer. "I dunno, and that's not my focus right now. I just don't want to get at Loki like that again."

"Then he has to break up with Lucy," Happy said. They had never purposely tried to break apart Lucy and her flings, no matter how annoying they became, but it looked like they had to, for Loki's sake. Natsu liked to spar with his Guild mates, sure, but what he did—or tried to do—was three steps further from that. He had no doubt that, given enough time, he would've smashed Loki into bloody bits, and on top of hurting Natsu, it would make his and Lucy's friendship vanish. "She'll probably hate you for it though."

"It's better than the alternative. Okay, brainstorm: how can we make this happen?" They rubbed their chins in thought.

"Oh, oh!" Happy exclaimed, dropping his fist in his palm. "Let's take all Lucy's fish and blame it on Loki!"

"Uh… Call that Plan B." Lucy didn't think nearly as much of her fish as Happy did. Well, eighty percent of Happy's thoughts revolved around fish anyway. "Something else." Neither of them were real thinkers, though, and it took a fair amount of time.

"Why don't you want Lucy to go out with Loki?" Happy asked all of a sudden. Natsu mumbled a complaint, crossing his arms over his chest.

"That's not where my problem is," he muttered. "I don't care what either of them do with their romantic lives—or Lucy's lack thereof, I guess. It's that she chose someone else over me, and someone that I'm close to."

"Well, we can't make Lucy fall for you—" Natsu sort of zoned out after that sentence. Well, why couldn't they? What was wrong with him? He thought he was a pretty cool guy, if a tiny bit passionate. "—but we can make her go out with a different guy, a stranger. You never cared when she went out with strangers, did you?"

"Not as much," he said, still a little sulky. "I guess that's a fix. But how are we supposed to go out matchmaking, buddy?"

"Let's not," he decided after some thought. "Let's just take Lucy out and let her find a better guy on her own. Where can we find a lot of people?"

"A bar," he said immediately. "And Lucy's a good fighter too—I bet she'll meet tons of guys there! And if things go south, we just pretend like we brought here there to eat. Lucy loves greasy bar food after all."

"Natsu, that's a great idea!" Happy cheered. "We should go and take her out right now!"

"Right now," he repeated, momentarily daunted by the idea of seeing her again. He quickly steeled himself though, because he was Natsu Dragneel and Natsu Dragneel never let himself be put down by any challenge, and he and Happy headed out with spines straight and resolves set.

Happy got the both of them to Strawberry Street in record time, and as Natsu scaled the side of the building he picked up the scent of lavender just fading away. Okay, so she was draining her bath and would be out any second. He pushed her window up and climbed onto her bed. "I'm gonna go see if she bought some more fish," Happy said, floating off towards the kitchen. Natsu eventually got bored flipping through her manuscripts and was just about to mimic Happy's kitchen raid when her bathroom door finally swung open.

"Ah that was a relieving— Natsu!" she shrieked in surprise, hands going to her heart. Thankfully, she was already dressed to sleep and not in a towel—it saved him a frenzied attack on her part.

"Lucy, we're going to a bar," he announced. She continued staring until her heart calmed down.

"A bar? Why on Earthland?" she asked, frowning.

"Because Happy and I know you like bar food."

"Where would you even get— Happy's here too?"

"Yeah, he's in the kitchen checking for fish. So, are you gonna leave dressed like that, or…?"

"I'm not going to a bar with you two!" she protested. "They're loud and obnoxious and, unlike the Guild, full of creepers. Besides, it's late and I just want to go to bed."

"It's not that late."

"Well, it is when you're a normal human being."

"Just—come on, Luce, please?" She gave him a funny look.

"Why do you want to drag me to a bar?"

"I, uh, because I, uh," he stammered, caught like a deer in headlights. He didn't even have Happy to back him up, not that Happy was any better at lying on the spot. Lucy crossed her arms over her chest and raised her eyebrows, which didn't help his case. "Okay, the truth?"

"Yes?"

"I want some food but can't afford it right now 'cause Happy blew our job money for the month on salmon," he said in one breath.

"Then why didn't you eat at the Guild? It's cheaper, and even if you are broke, Mira would let you slide."

"Because, ah, I uh— C'mon, Luce, why're you questioning me like that?" he said instead, changing paradigms. He didn't quite manage to throw her off though.

"Because you're acting weird…er than usual, and you have been since—" She stopped, eyes widening as she touched her lips in realization. "Natsu," she said in a weird tone. It made him uncomfortable in all sorts of ways.

"What?"

"Natsu," she said again. "You said you weren't jealous before, didn't you?"

"Well…yeah, because I wasn't. Because I'm not. This isn't about me anyway."

"Maybe not, but it will be if you keep acting like this." She shook her head with a sigh. "I'm not going to a bar with you and that's final, alright? Now go home."

"Mph," he complained, but decided not to press things. "Come on, Happy, we're leaving."

"Aye," Happy said in disappointment, flying from the kitchen with his satchel stuffed full and a half-eaten carp still in his mouth. "You neeb more fishb, Rushii."

"You need to catch your own!" she snapped back, and he could almost pretend things were fine between them.

"So I'll see you at the Guild tomorrow." He already had one foot out the window when she called him back, her voice soft:

"Natsu."

"Huh?" He turned and saw her watching him expectantly, like she was asking a question only he knew the answer to. He opened his mouth to ask what was she going on about when she suddenly opened her arms. "What? I'm not gonna hug you, weirdo." They didn't hug as a typical greeting/goodbye, and besides, he didn't trust himself too much at the moment.

"Just do it," she said in her Lucy Kick tone. He gulped and crossed the space between them, and hesitated for a moment before putting his arms around her. She closed the remaining space between them and linked her arms behind his back, pressing her face into his chest so that he could get a good whiff of her hair. It felt…familiar. Homey. Safe.

 _Natsu didn't feel particularly sated, staring down at Future Rogue's body. He was a Dragon Slayer, meant to kill dragons, yeah, but there was no satisfaction in fighting the very same breed that raised him from before he was old enough to even walk. His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides before he managed to relieve some of the tension in a sigh. Dust still coated his lungs from the collapse of the Eclipse Gate, and with it he could taste blood and death in the air. He exhaled slowly as he sensed a presence vanish behind him._

 _"_ _Thanks for the help," he murmured under his breath, "Uncle." He recognized Lucy's scent even above all the others, and…salt? Was she crying? Before he could ask, her arms went around him, her face buried in-between his shoulder blades._

 _"_ _Something the matter, Lucy?" he asked. He felt her shake her head in response._

 _"_ _No… Just…thank you," she whispered. He turned to face her, met her watery eyes, and pulled her closer. Even though he was warmer physically, she felt like a lit hearth to him, a center, something to keep him safe… Ironic, eh, considering how much he had to fight for her. He threaded his fingers through her soft hair and gently eased her head in the space between his shoulder and neck, feeling her tears dampen the remains of his vest, and closed his eyes. Despite the wreckage all around them and in his chest, he felt entirely whole._

His heart gave a sudden jump and persisted, even though Lucy could surely feel it from how close they were. He took a deep breath and held fast, trying to still it, his hands fisting at the base of her back. Something must've happened then, because Lucy jumped back with a start. "W-What? What is it?"

"You started heating up," she said, calming. "It just surprised me."

"Oh. Sorry. Well bye!" He jumped from her window before she could say anything else, and thankfully Happy caught him before he could hit the ground like a damn incendiary bomb.

"What happened?" he asked curiously. Then he almost dropped Natsu into the river. "Ow! You're really hot!"

"I know," he groaned, wiping his hands down his face. "Happy, I'm in it real deep."

"What does that mean?" He didn't answer right away, staring off at something in the distance.

"You know all those jokes you make about me liking Lucy? Well…"

"You like her?" he finished.

"I honestly don't know—if Porlyusica's right, and she's rarely wrong, then dragon instincts are screwing with my brain, twisting things into weird shapes. I don't know how to stop it either, not if she doesn't even want to be seen a certain way with me."

"Natsu…" he said pitifully. "Can I help?"

"Not unless you can fill my head with another girl, any other girl." He remained silently thoughtful as they return home, then gasped.

"I got it!" Happy announced, bursting through the door. Natsu followed him inside as he started rooting for something. "Gildarts said that these always take his mind off of Cana when he starts to miss her!"

"Eh? Why do we have them?"

"He left them for you the last time he came. Remember, he felt bad for accidently putting you in that mini-coma?" He did not, in fact, remember, but he guessed that to be a side effect of the mini-coma. "I found them!" He flapped away from a stack of Mercurius rubble and held up a stack of glossy magazines.

"Happy, magazines are what got us into this mess in the first place!"

"They should help you though."

"Okay, fine. I'm pretty desperate anyway." He took one and opened it. "What? Is this really supposed to help? It looks like the kinda crap Mira does every other week."

"I dunno, it's what Gildarts uses," Happy said with a yawn. "Anyway, I'm going to bed. Goodnight, Natsu."

"Night," he mumbled, staring hard at the double page spread. If he magazines couldn't help him, he could at least use them for fodder in practicing controlling his temperature. As long as shit was happening with Lucy, he was _really_ going to need the practice.

Something odd started to happen around the twenty-minute mark, when he'd fried the magazine to a crisp. He went to a different magazine, one just titled "XXX," and saw the first page was of a stark-naked woman covered in…frosting? Something like that. He skewed his mouth and twisted the picture all sorts of directions, but he couldn't find the same appeal in it that Gildarts or Makarov did, perhaps because he saw naked women on a daily basis and he was just desensitized. Then, bored, he imagined several other Guild mates' faces over hers. First Gray—he had a pretty damn good laugh over it, then Elfman, then Gajeel, Max, Warren, and Lily. He was on the floor with tears running down his face when, damn every god out there, he pictured Lucy's face on hers.

Maybe it was because he could see her naked body in every detail, or maybe it was because he had such a good sensual memory of her (including touch thanks to that unfortunate incident in the middle of his battle with Future Rogue), or maybe it was because she was constantly on his mind, but that one little idea brought a whole new slew of torture to his poor mind. He felt his magic run into his chest, like a miniature sun, but it also took a different, southern route that…perplexed him. He tried flipping pages, but every picture was now irreversibly of Lucy, and eventually he burned the whole thing to ashes alongside the others. Feeling utterly defeated like never before, he slunk over to his hammock and climbed inside, resigning himself to a sleepless night.

* * *

"Wow, Fire Face, you look like shit," Gray commented as Natsu slid onto the bar.

"Thanks," he replied dryly. "Mira, can I get coffee?"

"Sure," she said, passing him a cup. Gray watched him drink with narrowed eyes.

"Okay, spill: what's the problem?"

"Do you care?" he muttered into his drink.

"Of course I do. Sure, you're annoying as all hell, but I don't like seeing you like this."

"Well, uh…" He made sure Mira was out of earshot before turning to Gray. "I think I'm falling for Lucy."

"Think?" he echoed.

"Porlyusica said some crap about dragons mating or whatever and it's messin' with my emotions, but I really think there's some truth in it."

"Dragons mate?" he asked curiously. Natsu shrugged before letting his hands hit his thighs.

"Guess so." Gray raised his eyebrows and looked back at Gajeel, then at Wendy with a markedly more surprised expression.

"All of them?"

"Look I'm about as new to this shit as you are, don't go asking me for the gory details. All's I know is I've never hated being a dragon as much as right now," he sighed. Gray looked pensive as he shifted his eggs around his plate.

"I'm no romance expert either—not that I have a willing test subject," he muttered with an over-the-shoulder glance at Juvia behind a pillar. Natsu kind of liked her like that: if she had Fire Magic, she would've burned Ice Prick to a naked crisp a long time ago. "But I think I have a solution: just ask yourself how you felt about her before all this mess happened. I think that your answer's gonna be there."

"That's…surprisingly good advice coming from you, stripper."

"Not all of us can be hit and misses like you, Firecracker."

"Heh… Thanks, Gray."

"No problem, just… Just don't go spreading rumors that I'm an expert in this shit. I don't want unwanted ears catching word." He shuddered at the thought. Natsu finished his coffee and found that while it did wake him up to normal standards, he still felt like crashing on the grass. Gray excused himself to go check the request board while Natsu remained, trying to focus until the bar's bottles' labels swirled back into clear view. Mirajane swept past again and he shook his head slowly.

"What's the problem, Natsu?" she asked worriedly.

"I uh…" He knew better than to go blabbing about his feelings, especially to Mira of all people—like, half the Guild would know his business by dawn the next day, if he was lucky—so he went with a little safer territory: "Can you put my name down for the next spread of _Sorcerer's Weekly_?"

"Sudden interest in tabloids?" she asked. He shrugged a shoulder.

"No. Bikini prints." Her eyes opened in surprise.

"What? Really?" He nodded and suddenly she leaned in closer, conspiratorially. "Do we need to have… _the talk_?" she whispered.

"Talk? What talk? We're talking right now, aren't we?"

" _The talk._ The birds and the bees—"

"What do birds and knees have to do with this?" She sighed like she was talking to a particularly dense child.

"What Mirajane is being too _nice_ to say," Laxus interjected from the other side of the bar with a droll smirk, "is a good long talk about you getting laid with Blondie."

"Getting laid? What?" It took a few seconds to process, then the rusty gears in his head turned. "Getting laid with Lucy…" His heart again jumped into a frenzy, which despite him keeping his face as still as possible, he was sure every person in the building could hear, Dragon Slayer or not. Laxus' smirk grew into a full-blown grin that he barely tried to hide behind his beer mug, taking great pleasure in Natsu's chagrin. "Why in hell would I— She's a _friend,_ and—well—"

" _And—well—_ why else would you have slugged the lion like that, if not out of jealous?" he jeered. "It's because you want to get in her skirt, right?" Natsu felt like he was going breathless. He suddenly pictured Lucy naked—well, not pictured, since he had an exact memory of it—but instead of her giving her usual Lucy Kick/Punch/Slap, she invited him to take a closer look, even touched him back with those soft, warm hands of hers…

"I DON'T!" he said much louder than intended, trying to stave off disturbing thoughts. The Guild fell silent as a good number of guys rose from their seats and others took their food to the corners, expecting the usual early morning brawl to start as Natsu got to his feet, but instead he remained in his spot with shoulders shaking as if he would literally explode. He sure felt like it, his Fire Magic building large and hot in his gut and causing the floorboards to burn beneath his sandals. Laxus was facing him with a cocky smirk, still idly drinking his beer.

"You don't what?" came her voice from just behind him. Natsu froze completely, feeling like he was just encased in Gray's ice. Similarly, his fire died away in one quick second, mostly from fear of burning her.

"Yeah, Natsu, tell her what you don't want to do," Laxus said, sounding utterly like the cat that caught the canary. Natsu gritted his teeth and did the next best thing: leaping on him like a wild animal. And even though he was electrocuted into next week, it felt good to dodge the situation entirely.

He swam back into the world maybe an hour later, although he was too comfy in the infirmary's bed to open his eyes. He was almost going back to sleep for the day—he didn't get any sleep the night before, so the bed was like a big fluffy warm cloud—but a voice drifted through his thoughts, rousing him again.

"You big idiot," someone said, and he could've taken it for literally anyone before they continued, "going out of your way to give me all heart attacks this week… Crazy moron." He couldn't really smell up to par, not with sulfur still stuffed in his nostrils, but he could feel—wow, he could feel Lucy's hand on top of his. He would've curled his fingers around hers had his body still not felt like it was put through a lightning storm. "I thought we told each other everything, Natsu? Why won't you tell me what's wrong?"

 _Because I_ might _like you, and you_ certainly _don't like me back, or at least don't want it to be know what we're_ together _together, and I don't want to do anything that'll make you unhappy, Luce, even though I'm doing exactly that right now by keeping my thoughts hidden… This paradoxical shit is giving me a headache, in short, and I wish I could talk to you, but I can't, but I should, and—AAGH._

That was exactly why Natsu wasn't a thinker: it was too damn troublesome.

"Just… 'm sorry, Luce," he muttered, peeking up at her. She gave him an annoyed look, but thankfully it wasn't too severe.

"You're hopeless, you know that?" she said. He grinned in response, eliciting a smile from her. Then the infirmary's door opened and the scent of cologne and desperation wafted in. _Oh, gods._

"I knew you'd be up—it's pretty hard to keep you down, Natsu," Loki said with a smirk, waving at him. Natsu grumbled something in response and turned his back to them, pulling the sheets over his head.

"Natsu, do you mind if I—?"

"No, go. It's okay," he said, surprising himself with his even tone. "I'll just catch some Zs. I'm dead tired anyway." Lucy gave another apology before turning her attention to Loki.

"8Island?" he offered, and she laughed. _What's the joke? Did I miss something?_ he groused.

"Sure, Loki. I'll catch you later, Natsu?"

"Yeah," he mumbled as they left, closing his eyes, and as he saw Lucy yet again behind them, he was reminded of Gray's advice earlier. _How did I think of Lucy before?_

He remembered that burning anger he felt at Jose kidnapping her so long ago. He remembered that blinding sense of panic he felt as he read her goodbye note before it turned out she was just visiting the Heartfilia home, not staying there. He remembered the intense sympathy he felt as she realized her father had passed in the seven-year gap. He remembered the paralyzing grief he felt as she disappeared into the Clock. He remembered that overwhelming sense of concern as she was wheeled away after the Grand Magic Games' Naval Battle. Most potently, however, was that… _emptiness_ when Future Lucy died. It wasn't her, but was her at the same time, and regardless, seeing Lucy lying motionless on the ground was… He couldn't even describe it.

And there was a bit he never told anyone, not even a year and some odd moths after the fact: hearing Lucy's words about everyone being gone, including him, struck him hardest, because it meant he had left Lucy alone to bear that huge burden herself, and consequently, her death weighed on him as well. More towards his current issue, he couldn't see any point in time ahead where he _wasn't_ there by his side. Since forming a team so long ago, he couldn't see anyone by her side but him. He _wanted_ to be there, wanted to witness her weirdness and unpublished writings and crazy Spirits and extra hard Lucy Kicks. He, in short, wanted to be with her for the rest of their endless adventure. Did that mean that he loved her?

…Even someone as slow-minded as Natsu could see the answer.

* * *

 **Author's Drabble -** I update slow as treacle you guys... Just putting that out there. Did you guys know I'm also Captain Obvious's sidekick? ps Follow me on tumblr inkrediblekredible, I post Fairy Tail fan-art there pretty often.


	3. in which lucy does something they'll bot

**» chapter three**

 **» in which lucy does something they'll both regret**

* * *

 _"_ _Ooh, Ricardo," Vanessa moaned as she swooned into Ricardo's strong, tanned arms, "I would never have imagined that_ you, _of all people, would capture my heart."_

 _"_ _My love, nobody could catch that burning phoenix," he replied, brushing soft lips against her forehead and tucking loose strands of brunette hair behind her flushing ear. "You've only given to me what I've silently prayed for for years."_

 _"_ _Ricardo," she whispered lovingly, reaching up and caressing the sharp line of his jaw._

 _"_ _Vanessa," he said in the same tone, as if she was his sun, his moon, his stars, the tone that made her feel as if she was flying and falling all at the same time. Slowly they gravitated towards each other, the wind calming to a standstill as the heavens above went to witness the perfect pieces of each other—_

Lucy dropped her pen with a sigh, arching her back and stretching her arms. She had a pretty productive night by her usual standards—she might even have a whole chapter ready for Levy by tomorrow. She got up to eat some salad from the fridge, then took a bath and brushed her teeth. It was when she was about to close her window to stave off the cold night air that she realized something a bit alarming: Natsu hadn't come by. He always came by religiously just as she was getting into the bath.

 _Maybe he's still sore from that fight with Laxus,_ she thought, hands still curled around the window. It was a possibility, but injury has never stopped him before. He couldn't have been at the Guild either, since it was closed by that time, so he must've been at his place, the place he barely spent any time at. She waited by her window for five minutes more before shutting it with a disappointed sigh. Had it been anyone else, she would've assumed that he had finally taken her "get outs" seriously, but he was Natsu.

 _"_ _Could you for once_ not _break into my house like a bandit?" Lucy sighed, dropping her purse and shaking her head at the sight of Natsu and his partner-in-crime lounging in her armchair and eating off her watermelon for the third time that week. (Never mind the mess they were making—watermelon was expensively out of season!)_

 _"_ _Aw, but that's half the fun!" Happy protested, at which Natsu vehemently nodded to. He probably would've agreed aloud had his mouth not been stuffed, not that that ever stopped him before._

 _"_ _Don't you guys have other places to break into, like Gray's apartment? It's a lot bigger than here." She picked up Natsu's sandals, which he'd tossed across the floor, and set them in front of the door._

 _"_ _Why would I?" he said, swallowing. "It stinks like him—I'd never get the smell outta my nose." She didn't think Gray smelled as bad as Natsu frequently complained about, then again she didn't have a Dragon Slayer's nose, and she also didn't despise him as much._

 _"_ _Actually, Gray smells sweet to me. Kind of like ice cream," she said thoughtfully._

 _"_ _Really?" Natsu's mouth skewed as he exchanged a look with Happy, then he muttered something under his breath he quickly covered up with more watermelon._

 _"_ _Hey, don't get the juice everywhere! I just cleaned!" She worked on shooing Happy and his pile of raw fish from her manuscripts while Natsu practiced his sharpshooting skills by aiming the seeds at a lamp. "Natsu! Why don't you just take my watermelon and go home?" she grumbled._

 _"_ _Because it's more fun being here with you," he answered easily. "Right, Happy?"_

 _"_ _Aye!"_

 _"_ _I don't see how it's fun to mess up my stuff," she pointed out. He grinned at her in response._

 _"'_ _cause you need to loosen up some. It's fun here, messin' with you and seeing you pull your hair out." He sniggered as she growled at him. "And I like being here with you, too."_

In the morning, she would surely go find out what was wrong.

* * *

It costed her a fair amount of beauty sleep, but Lucy woke up early to start the trek to Natsu's house. By the time she made it, the two had already left for the Guild, so it was simple for her to get in.

She had almost forgotten the huge mess that they lived in. Old clothes, dirty dishes, and half-eaten meals were everywhere, and that wasn't even including his "junk collection." Still, she pushed up the sleeves of her pale pink cardigan and got to work—summoning Gemini to help.

"Why are we rooting through his stuff instead of asking him?" they asked off the bat, staring at Lucy with her own ruffled expression. Lucy huffed as she worked on sorting through a pile of charred firewood.

"Because he won't say anything. I've never seen Natsu hold onto a secret as hard as this."

"But won't he be upset when he finds out you were snooping, if he's intent on keeping this a secret?"

"He'd be more upset to see his secret hurt our friendship," she pronounced, dropping Gemini into a thoughtful silence.

"…Lucy," they started, then stopped, then rephrased their words: "Have you considered that maybe, Natsu likes you? It's possible considering how he's been acting lately."

"No way," she said immediately, looking up at them. "Natsu's a slave to his emotions—always has been. If he felt something for me—and trust me, I've checked," she added, thinking of her prodding him on two separate occasions, "then he would've made some sort of slip-up, or at least told me."

"We think you're underestimating his emotional capacity," they remarked. "He's shown that he can be caring a lot of times, like when you were taken by Jose, when you were beaten by Minerva, when Éclair died… Maybe he just can't express love in means that you understand?"

It was an interesting thought, actually. Natsu vibrated on a frequency that very little humans could comprehend. Maybe then, he _was_ confessing/expression his love for her, but in very Natsu-like terms. But that couldn't be, because he never said anything about her going on dates, not even with Loki. For someone that was constantly open with whatever he was feeling, she highly doubted that he would take that in stride. Then again, Natsu did a lot of things pretty weird…

"And besides," they added as an afterthought, "you already like him, so it wouldn't be a problem, would it?"

"I don't—I don't _like_ Natsu!" she protested, red burning on her cheeks as she accidently toppled a stack of dirty dishes in her flustered state. They fell and smashed into pieces over the concrete. "Oh damn it," she muttered, getting on her hands and knees to work on collecting the bits.

"You can't lie to us, Lucy—we see your thoughts."

"I… Maybe, but it's a little crush, it's nothing serious," she said lowly.

"And you think that going out with Loki would change that?"

"I don't know. That's not what I had in mind either, going out with him. It's just, he's been begging for a date for a long time, so I thought why not?"

"Well, because of that _what if_ scenario, Natsu attacked him," Gemini said blandly. "You know it wasn't just a coincidence." Lucy fell silent as she collected the clay shards into a pile. "We're just saying, Lucy, that if he is in love with you—"

"Ow!" Lucy cried, interrupting them. A piece of clay had stuck into her palm, cutting a clean line from the base of her pinky to her thumb. She hissed in pain at the injury, then blood started running in a stream down her palm and arm. Gemini started towards her, then the door slamming open caught their attention.

"Lucy I smelled blood!" Natsu exclaimed, eyes narrowed and fists clenched as he looked around. Once he was sure there was no one there to punch, he marched over to her purposefully and crouched down to her height. "What happened?" he demanded. He didn't sound particularly upset—did he not hear any of what they were saying? Actually, as Lucy looked around, Gemini had oddly taken their leave. Wow.

"Nothing, I uh, didn't you hear anything? I thought you were going to the Guild?"

"I came back 'cause I forgot my money, and Mira won't spare me any freebies today." He pouted for a moment, bringing a small smile to Lucy's lips before the pain brought her back to the moment. He extended a hand and she rested her arm in his calloused grip easily, trusting. His skin warmed fractionally as he inspected the wound, and the heat made her sigh in relief as the pain waned a bit. "I wasn't even paying attention—well, not until I got close and I heard you in pain." She blushed slightly at the implication but he didn't even notice, scrutinizing her hand with the expertise of one that had experienced more than his own fair share of injuries. "It's not that deep," he sighed with relief, leaning back on his heels. He walked off to a smaller pile of his stuff and started rooting through it. "Why'd you come here anyway?"

"I was…worried," she admitted. "You didn't come over last night." He tensed but quickly resumed his search.

"Sorry, I crashed kinda early." His voice came out strained, which she picked up on immediately: it was his guilty tone.

"Natsu."

"That's the truth, really." He came up with a battered first-aid kit and returned to her side, drawing a towel from the case.

"Isn't this your workout towel?"

"It's clean, trust me—I washed it myself." She did not, in fact, trust his cleaning capabilities, not after seeing how much of a wreck he slept on top of every night. But if nothing else, he was surprisingly gentle as he took her arm and carefully wiped away the blood. She barely even felt any pain as he swiped across her palm. "Clumsy," he muttered.

"What?"

"You're clumsy," he repeated louder, taking out a bottle of alcohol and dousing the towel with it.

"You're not going to change…?"

"Why? It's still a good towel." _I guess this is why he's not a doctor,_ she thought, deadpanning as he used the last bit of clean space on the towel to clean the area. _How does he even survive, living like this?_ "And I'm not clumsy."

"Then how did you smash those plates?" he challenged with a smirk.

"Because you don't know how to put things away! I don't know why you have cupboards and shelves in the first place!"

"I keep clothes and stuff in there," he explained.

"What sense does that make?" He was bandaging now, which was just as crude as his cleaning technique.

"Well, clean clothes, so I can know which are clean and which aren't. That makes sense, doesn't it?"

"No."

"Well it's 'cause girls are weird about their stuff. Like you have an entire drawer for your underwear—well, there's a lot of it, so I guess it's warranted—"

"Wha— When did you go looking through my underwear drawer?" she demanded, red in the face from embarrassment and anger. He didn't quite catch on, staring at her blankly.

"While you were taking a bath that one time. Happy and I were using your underwear like slingshots, then we got bored and used your bras as parachutes. They didn't work," he complained.

"Because that's not what they're for, you stupid dragon!"

"You don't need to shout in my face," he grumbled, clasping the cloth and ensuring it was tight enough not to fall off. He looked up, mouth open for another smart comment, when their eyes met. They were close, unexpectedly so, and the distance made her heart skip a beat, which she blushed at when she realized Natsu could certainly hear it.

"Well…thank you," she mumbled in a rush, getting to her feet. She was prepared to dart home and pretend the whole thing never happened when, suddenly, his rough hand clasped around her good one, squeezing slightly to catch her attention. She turned to ask him what was the matter but the words fell flat on her tongue when she met his eyes. He was staring at her with his usual Natsu expression, but somehow it seemed more…personal? She swallowed and licked her lips anxiously, and he followed her tongue with his eyes seemingly unconsciously.

"Wait," he said after what felt like an eternity, his voice low. He was still gazing at her with all the intensity of a burning bonfire, eyes dark, and she felt more blood rise to her face the longer he watched her. Then he released her, shifting his hand to cup her cheek. His palm is still warm like a hearth, and her eyelids fluttered at the contact. One of them drew a sharp breath—she wasn't even sure who in her fugue. His callouses gently scraped across her face as he took a lock of her hair between his fingers. "Here," he said, effectively breaking the spell as he tugged her hair slightly. Her eyes widened as he brought his hand down, showing her an old fish skeleton. "This was caught in your hair."

"Na— You moron!" she shrieked, embarrassed beyond belief as her foot went flying into his stomach. He was reeling from the impact, probably more from surprise than pain as she was sure she twisted her ankle from the attack, but she took the reprieve all the same to beat her hasty retreat. He probably thought she was crazy, but she couldn't even manage to care. Instead, his facial expression was filling every brain cell, even if it wasn't genuine.

 _Maybe he just can't express love in means that you understand?_ Gemini had said, and maybe it was true. But if it was true that Natsu was in love with her, and there was a teeny tiny chance that maybe perhaps she lo— _liked_ him back, then what would that mean for the two of them? That was the most chilling thought of all.

* * *

It wasn't often that Team Natsu had time for vacations, mostly because it seemed that at every turn, there was some new catastrophe happening, and in the case of the Tower of Heaven, it happened _while_ they were on vacation. Still, they had to at least try, so one sunny weekend while Natsu, Lucy, and Gray were having lunch at the Guild, Erza marched over and slapped four tickets down on the table.

"What are these?" Lucy asked, looking up from her smoothie.

"There's a new beach resort in a town a few miles from here," she explained. "I did a favor earlier for the owner, so he provided some complimentary tickets. I decided that we could all use a little getaway."

"Actually, I was gonna go a fishing trip with Happy," Natsu said.

"And there's a new ice cream shop in downtown Hargeon I wanted to check out," Gray added.

"I had some shopping to do," Lucy said helplessly. Erza's eyes gained a nasty glint as the next thing that hit the table was her metal fist.

"I said that we could use a getaway!" she repeated with an edge to her tone.

"A-Aye!" they agreed, completely changing their tune. The glint turned into a full-blown sparkle as she smiled victoriously.

"We're catching the train at noon, so be packed by then."

"Train?" Natsu squeaked, paling. "Can't we walk, or can't we run?"

"We're not all wild animals like you, Hothead," Gray muttered.

"Yeah? Well you smell like one."

"At least I know how to use the shower for more than just drinking water, you fiery mouth breather."

"Eh?" he snarled, butting foreheads with him. "Ya wanna say that again, droopy-eyes?"

"What, couldn't hear me over the sound of nothingness in your head, slant-eyes?" Gray retorted. They broke into their usual bout, which Erza ignored on account of beach excitement, and Lucy ignored as she was still amazed at their normal interactions. Granted, the events of the other day most likely didn't register as odd in Natsu's peculiar brain, but she couldn't help thinking about them two…or twelve hours of the day. She felt a light blush coat her cheeks that she hid by ducking into her smoothie, avoiding Gray's left boot as it went flying from their brawl.

"Hey, Erza," she asked as a thought hit her. She had to look away as the stars in her eyes were practically blinding. "Do you have an extra ticket for Loki?"

All of a sudden the fight ended as Natsu took a particularly hard punch to the chest. He didn't seem particularly bothered however, as his expression shifted from battle-crazed to plain pissed. He muttered something about getting an early start on packing before practically stomping off, leaving a trail of smoking wood in his wake. Gray stared after him more with concern than confusion as Lucy did.

"Loki?" Erza said, having missed the whole affair. "Right, I've forgotten you two are a thing now."

"We're not exactly a _thing,_ " she mumbled, twirling the straw around her finger.

"Well what would you call it then?" Gray said with more interest than he arguably should've. "A fling?"

"I wouldn't— I wouldn't call it a fling. That makes it sound cheap."

"So you really have deep feelings for him?" he continued. Lucy flushed harder and directed her attention on her pale pink fingernails.

"Why do you even care?"

"And where are your clothes?" Erza interrupted, turning to face him. Gray looked down and swore loudly as he realized he'd lost his jacket, shirt, pants, and one sock, although he still had his other boot. He went to go search for them while Lucy basked in the reprieve his bad habit got her. "You should get home as well to start packing," she suggested. "We'll only be there for the day, so it won't require much."

"Got it," Lucy said, more to appease Erza and get her silence than anything else. She finished her lunch and tossed her trash away, and she was just ready to head home and pack when Mirajane ushered her over to the bar.

"Give these to Natsu the next time you see him please?" she said with a saccharine smile, handing over a thick orange envelope. Lucy recognized it as one they sent magazines in, but she didn't take Natsu for a _Sorcerer's Weekly_ type of guy. Maybe there was a _Fire of the Month_ magazine she never heard of? It certainly was possible.

"Alright, Mira."

"And have fun on your vacation!" she added with an extra teaspoon of sugar, making her smile border creepy territory. Lucy returned it nervously and gave her a quick nod before hurrying past. Maybe, if she walked fast enough, she could escape the Guild's weirdness behind her. She was heading through the downtown area and towards Strawberry Street when she heard an odd noise in the alley towards her side. She had barely even turned when rough hands seized her around the wrist and mouth, choking off her surprised gasp, then she was thrown back into the grimy wall.

"Would'ja lookit my luck," the man leered, eyes roving her body hungrily. She knew she wasn't dressed too conservatively in her tank top and short shorts, but whatever layers she currently wore were being stripped away in his squinted vision, soon to be in reality as well. "A sexy broad walkin' by herself…" His breath stank of booze as he leaned in close to her, rubbing his nose up and down her neck. She gritted her teeth in disgust.

"I'll have you know I don't deal with drunks, not even from my own Guild." She grabbed the handle of her whip and prepared to swing before a sudden invisible force had her pinned against the wall, arm out. The whip and the envelope fell to the ground with a soft noise, followed by his pleased sniggers.

"Didn't know I'm a Mage too? Can't ya tell?" he sneered, taking the whip from her hand and patting her down. She shivered at the feel of his hands on her as he unhooked her belt with her Keys and tossed it into the shadows. "Can't have ya usin' these either. Now…" Still bound, she was helpless as he grabbed her tank top and pulled it up to her neck, exposing her pink bra. "Pretty plain—well, doesn't matter, it's comin' off in a second." His rough fingers felt cold as they reached around the back, fumbling drunkenly with the hook. She was suddenly reminded of warmer, more familiar hands, and squeezed her eyes shut with her jaw straining.

"Na…tsu," she managed past the force of his magic.

"Eh?" he muttered, looking up at her. "What's that?" When she didn't speak again he shrugged a shoulder and dragged his hands down her stomach, bringing another shiver, before hooking his fingers around her ample hips, raising his face to hers. She tried to turn away, but his magic was strong even with the alcohol in his system, and the panic built in her throat until she could barely breathe—

"You bastard!"

That was the only warning her would-be molester got before a literal fireball slammed into him, tackling him to the hard ground with fists flying before they even made impact. Lucy hurriedly pulled her shirt down and watched with wide eyes as Natsu relentlessly pounded him left and right, left and right, as his face swelled and burned beneath his blazing flames. The heat was unbearable even from her distance, and she had to wonder what it was like for the other guy. Suddenly her mind flashed back to Loki, the attack he committed on him, and she clenched her fists.

"Natsu, stop it! He's unconscious, just stop already!" He ignored her, or maybe didn't hear her, and continued thrashing. Giving an irritated breath, she moved forward and clasped her hands around his waist, digging her thin sandals into the ground and pulling back. She didn't quite have the physical build to move him, but maybe her presence brought him back, because his flames sputtered out as soon as she made contact and his body went limp, causing them both to flop on the ground from her effort.

"Oh, gods," he groaned, rubbing his eyes with the base of his palms, "not again. At least this asshole deserved it…"

A crowd started to form around the edge of the alley, which soon was followed by the police as expected. They asked Lucy a few questions, which she answered a bit shakily, then cuffed the man, although he had to be taken away to a hospital rather than jail. Natsu's jaw was clenched with a muscle at the base jumping every so often, and she was afraid for a moment that he'd give chase, and grabbed his arm to steer him away from the commotion. "It's over. It's okay. Come on, Natsu," she urged. He turned and squinted a little, scrutinizing her. The intensity of his gaze felt all too personal.

"So you're okay?" She shuddered once, involuntarily.

"I've had worse things happen to me—both of us know it."

"Yeah, but—but he touched you! And he almost, he almost…" He growled and grabbed fistfuls of his hair, shaking his head out like a feral animal, before directing his sharp stare at her. "If that'd happened, Lucy…"

"It didn't," was all she had to say, shifting her gaze to her feet.

"If it had," he said in the same tone. "That's all I'm sayin'. You gotta be more careful. I don't want to see you like that again." It sounded like a statement, but it came out more like an order. Like something said in desperation. But when she looked up, he was focused on something that wasn't her, expression aloof.

"Says the guy that throws himself into danger at every turn," she said dryly.

"That's different," he muttered crossly. "When I get hurt and when you get hurt are two different things."

"What do you mean?" she asked, confused. He didn't answer, just grunted something unintelligible as he rubbed the back of his neck. She sighed in defeat, letting her hands hit her thighs. "And anyway, we don't have time for this. I got to get home to pack, and so do yo…" It was then that she saw the magazines scattered from the envelopes. She bent over to pick them up and caught an unwanted glimpse inside one that was splayed with pages open. "Natsu, what's this?"

"Uh, your magazines?" he asked, dumbfounded.

"No, I was asked to give these to you. By Mira."

"Oh," he said, sounding a little anxious. "Well, uh, those are…"

"You know what? I don't want to know." She quickly shoved them in the envelope and pressed them into his chest.

"I-I'm not a pervert!" he protested as she avoided his eyes.

"I didn't say you are."

"You're thinking it! Look, I can explain—"

"No, really, it's alright," she said, putting her hands up to ward him off. He looked like he was caught in a huge internal war as she hurried off, hands over her burning face. _I guess Natsu is more sexually aware than I thought,_ she thought, amazed. _Is that a good thing…or a bad thing?_

* * *

 **Author's Note -** I really do feel like, compared to everything Lucy's been through, an attempted pervert's the least of her problems, especially since she's more than capable of fighting on her own. Just this once though I had her play damsel in distress - please do not burn me at the stake for it. Because it's Lucy, the event seems pretty fast-paced and insignificant, but I want to get back to it one time in Natsu's point of view, especially to show the significance of his lines. p.s. The next story to update after this will be The Iron Maiden after two Zeref-brand eternities! No really I'm going to increase the pace with updates after this, or at least put my best foot forward in an attempt.


	4. in which natsu gets another cat

**» chapter four**

 **» in which natsu gets another cat**

* * *

Shit. Shit, shit, shit to the tenth degree. Things seemed innocent enough at first, but now he was staring Death in the face—no, worse, he was balancing on the doorjamb that led into the deepest, darkest pits of Hell, and for once, that fire was _not_ going to be the pleasurable kind.

Things started well enough: they reached the resort, and he recovered from his motion sickness in a decent enough amount of time that they could still have fun in the water. He and Gray had a sand castle building competition first, which turned into a sand fortress building competition, but the winner ended up as Erza, "just because" in her words, and neither had the balls to challenge that logic.

"Hey, you guys up for water volleyball?" Lucy called with a grin, Loki smirking behind her as he bounced the ball between his hands.

"I can assure you, you won't win this battle," he said confidently, pushing his glasses up his nose. Natsu dearly wished that they would fall off and be swept out to sea.

"Natsu, you're not coming?" Erza questioned as he hung back, glaring daggers at his sand fortress. He shook his head no and pulled his scarf down from his forehead to his mouth.

"Nah… Gonna work some more on this," he mumbled into the fabric. She gave him a hard look before exhaling and walking off with Gray, who muttered some encouragement to him. Gods, he'd need all the encouragement he could get.

"You forgot one thing!" Happy flew over and tied a dead jellyfish to the stick he called a flagpole. " _Now_ it's perfect!"

"We'll call it Fort Dragneel."

"Why not Fort Happy?" Natsu waved him off.

"No offense, but that sounds weak. Like, if it was Fort Rage, it'd sound better."

"What about Fort Shark?"

"No, too late! I already send in the report."

"It's never too late!" Happy protested. Natsu and him went back-and-forth over the hypothetical name of their hypothetical fort for a long while until Happy grew tired of it and went to play volleyball with the girls and Loki. Natsu waved him off and was just about to build a sand guardian dragon for his fortress when Loki called out to him:

"Come on, Natsu, I've never known you to miss out on a competition or fun!"

"Well I'm having plenty of fun right here," he replied petulantly, putting extra work into the claws.

"Natsu, team fun is not optional!" Erza said, attempting to be commanding but with laughter still high in her voice. He set his jaw and didn't bother looking up even if it meant a surefire (literal) iron fist to his skull.

It was petty as fuck, but he didn't want to have fun that involved the lion, both because he was afraid what he might do to Loki and that he didn't trust himself too near Lucy. He already almost blew things earlier at his house because of his stupid lack of stupid self-control. He fully intended on avoiding her until he could get his burgeoning emotions in order, which was a feat in itself—"order" and "Natsu's emotions" had never gone hand-in-hand, but with Lucy he was tempted to move mountains if it would keep her happy, and as things were, her happiness was tied to their _platonic relationship_ —but there she was in his den, his cave in essence, and her scent mixed with his all over the area made his insides curl.

He swore to himself he'd get his shit done and over with sans baggage, then she had to go and cut herself like a weirdo, and when he looked into her eyes, nearly all bets were off. Her soft skin suddenly seemed even softer beneath his grip, and more so around the exposed area where her neck and collarbone met her light blue shirt. His heart raced, his skin burned, and he wanted to taste it so badly it was nearly painful. He wanted to mark her, make sure everyone knew that Lucy was his and his alone. She licked her lips and he wanted to follow the trail with his own tongue, then his teeth, then with his lips in a way that would make her forget Loki even existed. Loki's name essentially snapped him from his fugue, and he barely managed to cover his tracks before she caught on to something being amiss.

But, at the end of the day, something _was_ amiss—a pretty damn fucking big _something_ that was starting to plague his sleeping thoughts as much as his waking ones and affect him physically on top of emotionally. Would things have been better had he still been ignorant/in denial? He was sure the answer was in the positive simply because reality was becoming too much to stand: He was in love with his partner, his best friend, and whatever dragon instincts that were inside of him were making it a borderline obsession.

"Natsu, just come over here already!"

That voice, that accursed voice, was like electricity, shocking him stiff and dragging his head over to the water. Lucy was waving at him excitedly, water rolling down her light, creamy skin in rivulets and plastering her thick golden locks to her grinning face. Her strapless bikini did nothing to restrain those beautiful assets on either the top or bottom, nor did her sudden lurch at the ball coming in her direction. She shifted, slipping a little as the water threw off her balance, before clasping her hands together and hitting the ball towards Gray, and Natsu's mouth went dry as _everything_ bounced from the movement.

"Nice hit, Lucy," Gray praised with a smirk.

"Thanks!" She smiled that timid smile of hers and ran a small hand down the side of her neck—coincidentally, the same side that had been tormenting Natsu for a fair amount of time—and shook her head from side to side, letting her hair flail like a literal slash of gold against the blue sky before it returned to the exquisite shape of her body.

Gods, she was going to kill him. She was going to accomplish what dozens of twisted bastards couldn't do and cause him to die in a massive inferno triggered by a stupid game of water volleyball.

"Happy," he whispered, though he couldn't tell if he was really whispering or not. His friend returned from an ice cream stand with a blue Popsicle shaped like a carp.

"Yeah?"

"Can you do something…anything…to get them out of the water?"

"Okay," he said after a moment of thought, scarfing down the last of the Popsicle and flapping away to an area of the water cordoned off from swimming before diving beneath the whitecaps. Maybe a minute later, a huge wave broke the surface, wrenching all the visitors from the sea and tossing them to the sand with a joint panicked sound of screaming. A huge, puke-green kraken followed the wave with a screeching roar—it wasn't an S-Class beast, but it looked to be in the average power range. Natsu didn't know how Happy did it, but he was thankful nonetheless.

"How— You know what? I'm not even going to question it," Gray sighed, shaking his head as he pulled on his swim trunks. Double win: Natsu had also saved several poor swimmers the image of a butt-naked Fullbuster.

"Trouble just follows us on vacation," Lucy whined. Loki chuckled good-naturedly as he changed into his usual suit.

"I don't know about you all, but a good fight also constitutes a relaxing vacation for me," Erza smirked, reequipping to her Heaven's Wheel armor.

"I don't know about you guys," Natsu said with a grin, lighting his fists, "but I've got a fire in my gut that's ragin' to go wreck shit."

"Just don't wreck the resort— Who am I kidding?" Lucy sighed as they charged into the fight.

The kraken was fun, if a little too easy, and he got to show up Gray by burning off more tentacles than he froze, which was a decent win in his book, plus _takoyaki_ , which made it all worth it in his opinion. With his magic capped off and good food in his belly he had believed to be the day well spent.

Which brought him back to the present moment of his own personal hell.

"Pet me once?" Lucy implored, her lidded eyes blinking with what she thought was sexy charm as she tugged on his dark red yukata, curtesy of the resort. Right behind her was Erza, whose yukata had been spread at the chest just enough to be improper, as she waved the half-full bottle of booze angrily.

"Where is the— _hic—takoyaki_? Natsu, did you eat it all? I'll cut you open and take it back!" she roared, slamming her fists down on their room's coffee table hard enough to crack it. He winced at the sound and exchanged a look with Gray, who was similarly freaked by the whole situation. As Happy was blessedly deep asleep on the lounge's cushions, stuffed full of kraken, it was left to the two unlucky men to handle the blasted females.

"Where the hell is Loki? He should be dealing with this, not me," Natsu groused.

"He said he was going to the gambling hall—I don't think he'll be coming back anytime soon," Gray responded, shaking his head slightly. Natsu gritted his teeth, annoyed. Really, that lion could hang around like an infection every second Natsu loathed his presence, but the one time he could've been useful, he was out? The last thing he wanted to handle was Lucy intoxicated, let alone _Erza_ intoxicated, but it would have been significantly more difficult to hail Jellal over Loki.

(The last Natsu heard, Crime Sorcière was somewhere in southwestern Fiore, and through Lacrima conversations that he wouldn't admit to having received if face-to-face with the Council, he knew that they were alive and well and tracking down any remnants of Tartaros that may exist. Also, even if they were testified on contact with the Independent Guild, all evidence was hoarded and treasured—ahem, _stored_ in Erza's dorm, and no one would dare step foot there to retrieve them.)

"Rock paper scissors for who takes who?" he offered.

"You're on." Several to-be-resolved-later games later, Natsu had the _privilege_ of taking a bashed Lucy while Gray had Erza. Both wished each other a silent _Good luck_ as they went to the rooms that were supposed to be shared, males to one and females to the other, and Natsu laid Lucy down on what was supposed to be Gray's futon.

"C'mon, Luce, get to sleep," he sighed, sitting back and crossing his legs. _The sooner you do, the sooner I can go back to sulking._ Not that he enjoyed a sleeping Lucy _that he couldn't touch_ asleep in the same room as him, but he found that choice better than a drunken Lucy that would be all over him and, still, _that_ _he couldn't touch._

"No!" she wailed, staring at him with imploring eyes and rolling to her side. "'m not sleepy at all."

"Gods can someone just take pity on me?"

"Pet me?" she said again, looking at him hopefully. He inched away with a strained expression as she attempted to claw her way up his torso, and after a moment he gave up entirely and patted her on the head.

"There, now stop." But she didn't, and instead she started rubbing on him even more. Her proximity, plus the top of the yukata being pulled down over her cleavage, was immensely distracting. His fangs were certainly cutting his lip to shreds as he gritted his teeth and tried to ease her off of him.

"Is your kitty being bad?" she queried, tilting her head to the side curiously. "Do you want to punish me-ow?" He didn't know whether to roll his eyes or bawl at the general absurdity of the situation. Maybe both.

"You're taking a page from Virgo's book now?"

"Meow," she hummed, nuzzling her head against his arm. He shivered at the sensation and tried backing away again, but his hand slipped and he fell backwards onto the tatami mat. Lucy grinned crookedly as she climbed over him, hands weakly clasped around his wrists. He knew that if he really tried, he could pull free, but his body wasn't willing to cooperate.

"Luce, it's time for b-bed, Lucy," he begged. _Please, please, please—I'm talkin' to any god out there that can stand me right now, please don't make either of us do something we'll regret!_

"I'm a kitty," she continued anyway, giving him a coy smile that wasn't the least bit affected by her drunken state. "Did you know kitties go into heat?"

 _I know I'm going into heat,_ he thought as sweat beaded atop his warming skin. She purred and lowered her head, nuzzling his neck and letting her loose hair tickle his face. Her scent filled his nose like a drug and he couldn't help himself as he wrapped his arms around her tight, bringing her body flush against his. His breath choked off as he realized what he'd done, but she couldn't bring herself to mind in her state. She giggled and slapped her hands against his cheeks. "Natsu!" she said with the excitement of a little girl. "You're burning up! Are you sick?"

"Lovesick," he mumbled before he could stop himself. She tilted her head to the side, eyebrows raised, and he thought _To hell with it, she's drunk._ "Why did you pick Loki over me?"

"Why?" she echoed, smiling a little. "Why, why, why… Because!"

"Because what?"

"Because you're not a lovey-dovey person!" she blurted like it was just too obvious. "You care sometimes, but you're just loud and obnoxious and you're always teasing me," she pouted with no real hurt in her voice. "I want someone that'll hold my hand when we walk together and buy me chocolates just because and tuck my hair behind my ear as an excuse for kissing me."

"Ain't that some Romance novel shit?"

"There's nothing wrong with Romance novels," she protested. "And they're written that way for a reason—they show real romanticism. You're not romantic…at…all," she said, punctuating the last two words with two taps on his nose.

He squinted at her in disbelief—he didn't know she had such high expectations for a relationship. Then again, it made sense considering how Lucy was: she was an (unpublished) author and a general dreamer, so she had high expectations for a lot of things. Things that had to do with romance especially, now that he thought about it—it was why she put so much effort with all that makeup and perfume and pretty clothes. In her eyes, love was all that big useless shit like "just because" flowers and chocolate and fancy dresses and lots of gunk, but to him love was two people that really liked each other being together. It put things into perspective then, that realization: he could go on acting as he did for the rest of eternity, but as long as he held his belief and Lucy hers, they wouldn't be able to have a proper, satisfying relationship.

It wasn't that he particularly needed to be in a relationship with her—not that he didn't want it; no, he wanted it so badly it was becoming consistently painful—but he did see them at the very least still being a team far into the future. He knew he wouldn't react to every one of her future boyfriends as he did Loki, but he doubted his self-control when it came to the subject, so things didn't look good for him on that end. And even if he somehow miraculously, blessedly managed the impossible and reigned in his emotions, his sanity would be the next to go, for as long as he had to see her and be near her every single day, she would be all he could think about. Hell, even when they were apart, she polluted his mind.

He put a fair amount of thought into when, exactly, Lucy had become all he could think about and saw that it hadn't been with Loki—it had been a long time before that. Around the Grand Magic Games, maybe, when he felt general concern over her after the attacks by Flare and Minerva border something stronger. Then the whole thing with Future Lucy happened, and that was when his heart became unbalanced. He missed her as he trained after Tartaros, missed her face and her smell and even her damn Lucy Kicks, and it wasn't until he saw her again at the next Grand Magic Games that he realized how much was missing without her.

Lucy, in short, was his drug, slowly killing him not with brute force or infinite magic like his opponents, but with pleasure, and the darkest sort at that. And as much as Natsu wanted to walk that road as far as it went, testing limits as per his nature, he feared that at some point, he'd pass the point of no return for both himself and her.

"Maybe I'm not," he supposed, returning to the world with an exhausted sigh. She brightened at being proven correct—well, at least some things didn't change with her drunkenness—and giggled again.

"But it's okay," she continued, her voice slurring a little. "'cause you're Natsu, and I'd never want you to be like Loki."

"Good." If he one day woke up as gelled-up and slick and womanizing as Loki, he would kill himself on the spot. "I'd never want you to be any other way either." _Except beautiful. And good. And nice. And every other reason that's making me more of a pervert than Ice-dick._

"Are you sure?" She was coy again, and there was a mischievous glint in her eyes to rival Erza's. The sight made Natsu gulp apprehensively, which turned into mad babbling as she hooked her fingers in her collar and started drawing the sides of the yukata apart.

"L-Lucy, don't!" he stammered, grabbing her wrists and putting her hands together. "Don't do something you'll regret in the morning." _Or tempt me to do something we'll_ both _regret!_

"Aw, I'm not _naked,_ " she teased. "I just wanna show you something…" He loosened his grip a bit but kept his hands on hers in case she tried to pull a fast one on him. Slowly, she drew the top of the yukata down, but the sash prevented her from pulling the whole thing away. "See?" she smirked, pointing at the red and white-striped bikini she wore. It was strapless and a little smaller than the one from earlier, if such a thing was possible. Natsu narrowed his eyes—he was sure he recognized it…

"Where did you get this? I've never seen it before."

"The resort's shop," she elucidated, then brought her hands back to his face with lidded eyes. "I saw it there, and I thought it looked just like one from your magazines."

 _Oh gods,_ that's _why!_

The Forbidden Gates slammed open behind squeezed-shut eyes. In that tiny portion of his mind that was still semi-pure, he knew that that whole situation was wrong, but the rest of his brain was occupied with image and sound that could rival a royal Lacrimal picture, scene after scene of Lucy falling prone to him. Kissing was as innocent as any of them came, but he also considered flipping her onto the futon and burying himself to the hilt in her smoothness, or untying that goddamn bikini with his teeth to reveal the soft prizes beneath, or do what he's been imagining for the longest time and bring his teeth to the surely succulent skin at the junction of slim neck and shoulder—

He shoved her backwards as quickly as possible, causing her to land on her behind with an "Oomph," and scrambled backwards until his back touched the wall. Not a second later his yukata started smoking as little charred patches appeared in the material. It was slow at first, but the scent of burning fabric steadily increased as he stared at her soft skin barely contained by the thin knotted fabric. He licked his lips but found his tongue as parched as the rest of his mouth even though he was sweating buckets on the outside.

"Don't you like it, Natsu?" she teased, shuffling forward on hands and knees towards him. He expected it was because she lacked any real balance, especially since she was still sort of swaying from side to side, but her mental facilities wearing down further was no good news for him. He shifted and prepared for one mad leap to the door when she reached him with a sudden burst of speed, grabbing at the fabric around his shoulders until the left side fell loose, and she traced a slow path around the bare skin of his pec with her soft hand. Then she laid her palm flat against his skin, making his heart beat at record speed.

"But you know, there's a pro to being Natsu versus being Loki," she continued, resting her head in the crook of his neck. She smelled him—she fucking smelled him. He was so close to losing it that it wasn't funny.

"W-Wh-What? Is it?" His instincts were a roar of blood in his ears and fire in his belly. It was damn near causing him physical pain to ignore the attraction to her, as the dragon side wanted to possess her and mark her at that very moment. He knew she didn't want that, and so he didn't want it either. He wanted to put as much space between them as possible, but as with many other things, he was a slave to her being, and he couldn't go if she held his rapture as she did.

"You're warm, like a hearth…makes me think of…home…" And she curled up into his warm chest just like a cat and promptly conked out. And as she clung to him with all the ferocity of one, he resigned himself to yet another sleepless night and had a scary thought that he wouldn't be able to get a good night's sleep for a long, _long_ time to come.


	5. in which natsu cedes

**» chapter five**

 **» in which natsu cedes**

* * *

"Funnily enough," Erza remarked as they were aboard the train home, glancing out the window at the passing resort, "I don't remember much of our one-day vacation."

"Me neither," Lucy sighed. "What a waste."

"That's one way to put it," Gray supposed, glancing at Natsu who, for once, wasn't suffering from motion sickness. His fatigue was already using up all of his body's energy and he literally couldn't be any weaker.

"Mph," he grumbled in agreement, sinking into the seat's cushions. While he didn't catch a second of sleep himself, occupied by his haphazard pet kitty, Gray was the first up, him and Erza being the usual morning risers, and saw the predicament he was in. Together they managed to pry Lucy away and Natsu crashed on the couch for the next two minutes or so before their train was due to arrive. As Loki returned from his recharge in the Spirit World while they prepared to leave, Natsu got the feeling that he knew something was off.

"She was drunk off her ass last night," Natsu had said as Loki looked into the girls' room. "And if hungover Lucy is anything like angry Lucy, you don't wanna be around her."

"Mm," he hummed thoughtfully, not responding at all. It was unsettling and a little chilling to be honest. Natsu may have had his…jealous moments, but he still liked Loki, at least when he wasn't all over Lucy.

"Guys?" Lucy's voice startled him from his thoughts and he looked back to see her looking between the two of them expectantly. "How was the trip for you guys?"

"The fish was good!" was Happy's anticipated response.

"Well, I'm honestly happy I could get some time in the water without the fear of getting secretly groped by Juvia," Gray said with a sigh. "Although that public nudity fine was bullshit."

"Yes, very… And you, Natsu?"

"Average," he said uncommittedly. Then, as Lucy narrowed her eyes a little, he added, "Wish that kraken would've put up a better fight though. I didn't even have time to get fired up."

"Of course you didn't—it _was_ pretty small fry," she laughed, buying into his act. "I probably could've even taken it by myself!"

"Is that so?" he challenged. She chuckled awkwardly, tapping her fingers together.

"Perhaps with a Dress to aid me…" Natsu cracked a smile in return, but as with all of his happiness as of late, it was quickly tampered by Loki's reappearance. Even the breakfast he brought from the other car couldn't lift Natsu's spirits, which was saying a whole lot right there.

"Hey, Natsu," Loki said as he worked himself into eating a scrambled egg sandwich, "what do you think of Lucy?" Natsu never thought he'd say it, but thank the gods for Gray, who caught him before he choked to death.

"Wha— Where the hell did _that_ come from?" he sputtered, his head snapping between Loki's coolly inquisitive expression and Lucy's surprised one.

"Yeah, Loki, why ask?" she agreed. Loki simply shrugged a shoulder, eyes never leaving Natsu's. He didn't usually sweat, but there was certainly something building beneath the warmth of his scarf. "But since you've brought it up…"

 _Oh gods no I'm going to get found out aren't I oh no—_

"…he thinks I'm a weirdo—even I can tell you that," she deadpanned, a sour note creeping into her tone. Natsu was so elated he could cry.

"I see," he said, not quite satisfied.

"Trust me, Loki, if you're looking for depth, you're not going to find much in his kiddie pool brain," Gray remarked, digging his fist into the side of Natsu's skull. He pretended to be occupied with his meal but mouthed a _Thanks a lot_ to Gray, who snorted and waved it off.

"Aha, I guess you're right," he chuckled, adjusting his glasses. Erza looked between the four of them with a slightly mystified expression.

"Am I missing something here…?"

"Nope, not anything, because there's nothing _to_ miss," Natsu said with the lying capabilities of a newborn baby. "That is to say, we're all having a normal conversation on a normal day and _bleurgh motion sickness is back._ "

He was never so glad to have an excuse to jam his foot in his mouth as when his motion sickness made him barf over Erza's boots and consequently take those same boots to his head.

He just wanted to give up and admit the truth, that he loved Lucy, but it wouldn't mean anything but consternation from the both of them. And Loki would realize that Natsu _did_ , in fact, attack him out of jealousy—there was that too. He so wished that things could go back to how they were not too long ago, when all he had to worry about was if Lucy would kick him out of her apartment before he had time to eat.

"Do you all want to grab a request when we return?" Erza questioned, steering the conversation back to familiar area. "It doesn't have to be a long one either, perhaps one that can be done locally within the next half day. It's been a while since it's been the four of us as a team…oh, no offense, Loki."

"None taken. I can't quite keep up with the four of you anyway."

"I don't need the money for rent, but I could use the pocket change for a little shopping," Lucy supposed. Natsu and Gray and Loki exchanged a look that conveyed their comprehension of a girl's _little_ : "too fucking much."

"I wouldn't pass up some extra money anyway," Gray said. "Just the same, I need to do some clothes shopping."

"Maybe if you didn't strip so often, you wouldn't need to buy new clothes all the time…"

"What was that you said, fire fart?" Gray growled, grabbing half the loaf of remaining everything bread.

"I said— _bleurgh_ ," he groaned as the smell of it hit him, followed by another wave of sickness. It at least got Gray as far from him on the train's little bench as possible. "How much, erg, farther to the Guild?"

"Still a few hours," Lucy supplied, earning a desolate moan from Natsu as he resigned himself to a few hours' more worth of pain, not even with Wendy aboard to share in his agony. She opened her mouth to speak again, a hand raised as if to comfort him, then glanced at the surrounding passengers and let it drop back to her lap. _Why does this girl have to be so self-conscious?_ he thought, exasperated.

Natsu felt shitty, but he didn't truly start to resent his condition until an hour into the trip, when the others began to doze from waking up so early in the morning. He glanced at Gray, whose head had slumped over to one side, and had he been in a better state of being, he would've drawn over his face—Happy too, matter of fact, because the cat sure as hell never gave him a break whenever he crashed early back at their shack. In fact, the sight of the great Titania with her head forward and arms slack— _away_ from her sword, might he add—gave him the kind of energy that Troia hadn't in a long while.

"Time to shine!" he snickered, blowing flames onto some of the paper towels Loki had brought until he had a handful of ash. He sketched a big ole curlicue 'stache onto Gray's face, and it made him look better than usual, if he did say so himself. Riding out another wave of nausea, Natsu then gave Happy two big black eyes and a second, grinning mouth with lots of missing teeth.

Descending upon Erza, giddy with the arrogance of a god (a god of ash and suffering from motion sickness, but a god nonetheless), his two primary fingers descended upon the crest of her forehead, soon to be housing a thick monobrow, the scarlet demoness's armored hand lashed out with menacing speed, seizing the offending wrist of his with a grip that could and probably was breaking bones, eyes narrowed to hateful chips that sent shivers down Natsu's ancestors' spines.

"Don't. Even. Dare," she growled with the ferocity of a lion and the killing intent of a cobra. He swallowed three times before he could speak, and even then, his voice was more of a mousy squeak than a voice. Right after, her hand dropped and she fell back against the seat's plush leather once more, a small smile on her face that was once again relaxed into REM.

 _Guess I've learned my lesson about that,_ he thought, feeling three inches tall and like he needed a new pair of pants. He decided that Erza was, after all, _not_ a good person to attempt desecrating if he wanted to live long enough to have kids, or even keep the three things that allowed him to have kids.

He would've done Loki next, but after what happened with Erza, he was more than a bit paranoid that the lion had some sort of Spirit ESP, and this time it wouldn't be a warning that he was given. He gulped at the thought and instead moved onto Lucy, whose head was against the cool glass and fogging it slightly with her gentle, steady breaths. She let her hair down that day, something she didn't do too often, and it fell in long waves down to the black sleeveless top she chose to wear. One lock was curling about her nose, making it twitch every few seconds like she was a bunny. He was smiling and laughing at the sight without even being conscious of doing so.

 _Has Luce always been this cute? I wonder…_

He reached out and pulled the strand away, tucking it behind her ear. As he did so, his hand lingered on her cheek longer than he intended. He was briefly reminded of when he found her at his home and touched her face in much the same way, prepared to do something he would regret. The difference between then and now was that she was asleep, all the witnesses were, and he could stare at her as long as he wanted. Stare at and never touch… That wasn't what he wanted, was it?

"Damn it, you know how much trouble you're causing me right now, Luce?" he sighed with all the energy of a man damned by the world, poking her hard in the forehead. She shifted but didn't wake, just exhaled and changed positions until she was fully facing him. He tilted his head and drank in the sight of her, all her gentle curves and bright lights, and frowned before a grin pushed itself out of him. "But I'll be damned if I never enjoyed a good dose of trouble."

He leaned against the window and looked out at the mountainous savannahs they were passing through. They blurred into one another after long enough, and his motion sickness didn't help him make any distinctions in particular. It wasn't bothering him too much until the others woke up as they were finally passing into Magnolia, and Gray and consequently Erza and even Happy tore him a new one for the face-drawing stint. Then he was motion sick and bruised and swollen all at once.

"I think I'll pass on the job," Natsu said as they stepped into the station and he had kissed every stable, unmoving tree in the vicinity.

"Really?" Loki questioned, eyebrow raised. "I could see that if it was something boring, but we haven't even picked a job yet. There surely are a lot of monster-slaying ones still hanging around since the Guild's just opened for the morning."

"I dunno, I just don't feel in the mood to do it," he said, trying hard not to sound petulant about the whole thing. Even if he did, his teammates were giving him some worrisome looks. "What, do I have an octopus on my face or something? Why're you guys burning holes in my face like that?"

"Will you do it, or shall I?" Erza said to Gray. Gray shrugged and abruptly grabbed Natsu by the arm. He shouted a protest that went unheard as right after, his legs were cuffed with some of the strongest ice that the Mage could make, and Gray was never a pushover. His wrists followed right after, and in the blink of an eye Natsu was being toted front and back by Erza and Gray while Loki and Lucy trotted easily on either side of him. The situation was so batshit insane off the chain that Natsu thought he was dreaming for a moment.

"What in the great green land of Earthland is fucking going on here!?" he yelled, attracting even more eyes than a human sacrifice already was.

"We're worried for you," Lucy said, gently touching his forehead like it was alright and it was _not_ alright.

"What!?"

"You've been acting off for a long time," Erza expounded. "Initially, we chalked it up to normal Natsu weirdness—" he protested loudly at that, which she ignored, "—but now it's time for an intervention. We're taking you to Porlyusica's."

"And why not just ask me to go?"

"Because you wouldn't, flames-for-brains," Gray snorted, and although Natsu wanted to sock him for it, he was right.

"I—don't—want—to—go! I'm fine!" Moreover, if they went, she would just tell them what she told him, and while he got the sense that his newest draconic issue would come off as freaky to them (yes, even to the cake-loving knight and stripper wizard), Lucy's reaction would be a lot stronger. She was, after all, more refined than the rest of them, and if she heard anything along the lines of "raging hormones" or "dragon hormones," she'd dodge him for the rest of forever. Hell, _he_ would dodge himself, having endured ten years of demonesses and their demon version of hormonal shifts. Erza during her cycle…oh, gods, _that_ was a living nightmare.

"We'll see," she replied.

"Well at least put me down, because I'm getting—" He started dry-heaving, as he was already on an empty stomach, but for once, the prospect of getting sicked (sickened? Was there a verb for getting puke all over one's self?) did not affect them. That was how he knew the situation was serious.

 _Well, this was bound to happen at some point,_ he thought resignedly. _But why did it have to happen so soon!?_

"Don't worry," Lucy said with a smile. "If there is something wrong, we'll get it fixed."

He laughed at the irony, because Lucy _was_ the only one that could fix his problem. Happy flew up to land on his stomach, looking at him with wide eyes. "Any help here?" Natsu asked pitifully.

"Nope!" he said. "I'm outnumbered and outclassed here. Sorry, Natsu."

"O-O-Ooh…"

He couldn't think a way out of the situation short of exploding in a giant inferno, but not only would that not work, it would leave him even more nauseous and with the day's second ass-kicking before ten A.M.

"So, this is really happening?" Happy asked as no combustion occurred. Natsu could only groan in response. Maybe, if his brains weren't tied up in a knot alongside his intestines, he could think better, but _two_ vehicles one after another was certainly his limit.

Call it fortunate, then, that right as they stepped out of the station and onto the street, an explosion occurred a block down. "Oh, I guess we should go investigate—damn," Natsu said, trying and failing to sound innocent.

"Lucy, Loki?" Erza nodded in the general direction of screaming people and smoke, and the two icky lovebirds nodded and went to investigate. His heart sunk—now he was sick, chained, _and_ inadvertently set up Loki and Lucy for another date. Could things get any worse? He was scared to find out.

"Gray, can't you get me outta this?" he urged. "I don't ask you many favors, but please do me this one?"

"I'm not gonna fight Erza's wishes," he protested, "even for you. Sorry, but I'm not quite in the mood to die today."

He had nothing left to do but close his eyes and wait for them to reach Porlyusica's. Hopefully, it would be one of the days she was really averse to humankind.

Then a golden flare shot into the sky, bursting into a shower of filaments that reflected from the sun's light. They couldn't tell if it was Lucy's or Loki's, but the message was clear either way. Natsu's flames were restoked and he melted Gray's manacles to land in a crouch, and he was the first one launching towards the direction of the commotion.

It pretty much looked like a generic everyday occurrence: some rogue Mages thought they were hot shit and were causing a little trouble. At first, Natsu couldn't see why Lucy and Loki would need the help, as three Mages were already bound with anti-magic cuffs and still stuck in unconsciousness. Then his eyes shifted to the center of the street, where Lucy was on her knees staring in shock as Loki battled—Taurus? Yet the bull looked nothing like himself, the usual lusty look in his eyes replaced with a white glow that did not mask a rage beneath.

"Natsu!" Lucy cried. He raced to her side immediately.

"You're hurt?"

"Not badly, but it's Taurus! One of the Mages had a weird artifact that made him go crazy, and he's even refusing to be dispelled."

"There's always some sort of wrench in our machine, isn't there?" he smirked bitterly just before Loki was struck down. Taurus raised the battleax for a final blow, punctuated by Lucy's shriek, and Natsu chose that moment to slide into the fray, clapping his hands on both sides of the blade. He gave Loki enough time to slide away, but right after Natsu was overwhelmed, pushed down to his knees. "Ack! Jeez, man, what kinda vitamins are you takin'?"

"I think it's a kind of curse that amplifies one's primal instincts," Loki said, crawling to Lucy's side before flopping on his back. His suit was torn down the middle and around his left shoulder, baring two large slits that hurt just to look at. Lucy held his hand with a reassuring squeeze before glancing back at Natsu.

"Then I'm surprised he's not holding up a girls' locker room or something." Natsu's hands flared up as he dug his fingers into the chipped steel, growling with the effort until he'd managed to pierce through and superheat the whole thing to red-hot, reminiscent of a fighting a certain other perverted primate wielding Taurus' jacked ax.

"Listen, you, I've just suffered _two bouts_ of motion sickness and am in no mood to play, even with _you_ , so do me a favor and _back the fuck up!_ " he bellowed, shoving Taurus back with greater force. He had to release the ax to not trip, and even then, he stumbled backwards over the uneven crosshatched stone of the avenue. While he was still stunned, Natsu leapt forward with fist cocked. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" He couldn't lie and say that it wasn't a little satisfying to hear his knuckles connect with Taurus' nose bones, not that he was aiming to seriously hurt or anything, but he did succeed in knocking the bovine out cold.

"Nat—oh, what did I expect?" Lucy sighed while Loki chuckled. By that time, Erza and Gray had caught up as well. Lucy filled them in on a more detailed account of events, and afterwards they consoled the injured and scared and started investigating the area before ERA showed.

"Have you seen the artifact?" Erza inquired Lucy as she was helping Loki limp away with makeshift bandages made from her shirt. "These three are empty-handed." Then, not a second after she spoke, one of the unconscious Mages proved himself to not be unconscious.

"Erza, look out!" Gray called. Erza's warrior reflexes kicked in and she leapt from where the three Mages were stationed. Natsu, startled, snapped his head towards them, and he stared into his eyes reflected in an oddly-shaped silver mirror. As he stared, his reflection morphed into a phantom doppelganger, one with crimson sclera and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. He felt his heart beat out of place, then his memories stopped from thereon.

* * *

"Where…am I?" Natsu croaked as he swam back through the murky black to the world of the living. It took him a moment, but he placed the wooden interior and heady herbal scent as Porlyusica's tree home. He couldn't manage to sit up yet, not with his head throbbing and enough muscle relaxants in his system to put down an adult horse, but it didn't matter, as his friends came to him.

"We're at Porlyusica's," Erza explained, gesturing to the pink-haired woman that scoffed at him before returning to her potion making. "You needed to be patched up so we rushed over."

"Patched up…?" He raised his arm, which felt more like a lead weight than an arm, and noticed bandages across most of it. His other arm was immobilized in a sling. "What happened again?"

"We were fighting those Dark Mages in the middle of town," Lucy said, rubbing gentle patterns into the back of his hand. While the others were standing, she was the only one seated at his bedside, as if she had been there a long while. "They had a certain artifact that cursed the victim with a hex that made them go wild. Taurus was affected, then you."

"It was something to be seen, for sure," Loki added. He was sitting too, but more reasonably because of his casted left leg. "If dragons were still around today, I'd think you were one, the way you lunged at all of us." Gray nodded in agreement. He was pretty bruised and would get one hell of a black eye in the morning, but no broken bones. Damn. "But even then, affected by a curse, you still wouldn't touch Lucy."

"I wouldn't?" He tried and failed to remember the scene. There was just a lot of noise and commotion, and his brain hurt when he tried to force more.

"Loki was the closest one to her, so he shielded her when he saw you rampaging," Gray said. "You ran straight towards him and broke his ankle with a kick, but you acted like Lucy was invisible."

"I see." Actually, he didn't—he was still terribly confused. "But I see you've saved my ass, so thanks you guys."

"It's what friends do," was their automatic response.

"If all that's nice and settled, then get out of my house!" Porlyusica growled, swinging her broomstick back and forth to herd away Erza, Gray, and Lucy.

"Why me? I'm not human," Loki griped as he was swept away as well, then the door slammed behind them, leaving Natsu and Porlyusica alone. He grunted as he forced himself into a sitting-up position.

"Thanks for treating me, Porlyusica." She didn't respond, staring at him for a few seconds before frowning slightly.

"I didn't tell them about your instincts," she said curtly. "And, by the look of things, you haven't either."

"I'm working up to it," he grumbled. "It's not something you can just drop on others. It's…embarrassing. That's one way of putting it."

"But it's also not a problem that will go away if you ignore it," she pointed out. He muttered an expletive and slid under the covers. "And seeing as how the blonde is with the Spirit, you aren't doing anything about it anytime soon."

"What, am I going to snatch her away from him? I'm not that kind of guy." Or rather, that was more Loki's forte, stealing women away. "'sides, this'll have to wear down eventually, won't it? Like a boulder in a river. At least, I'd get used to it."

"The same way one would get used to an amputated arm," she said, and he winced at the analogy. Her eyes softened a fraction as she stepped closer, regarding him with a pensive expression. "You're not one to lie down and take defeat—you never have been, not since you were an impertinent brat that screamed his head off every time I cleaned your wounds." He winced and scowled at that. "As such, I wouldn't expect you to bear things as you are. Why not seize them?"

"Because maybe Things doesn't want to be seized," he muttered petulantly. "Maybe Things just wants to be left the hell alone so friendships can stay fine and boundaries can stay fine."

"…Is that so," she sighed eventually. "Then I have nothing left to say." They were spared an awkward silence by the door opening again, allowing Wendy inside.

"Porlyusica-san, Natsu-san," she greeted. "I heard about the fight! I'm sorry I couldn't get there to help, but Charla and I were just returning from a mission, and…"

"It's okay," Natsu interrupted. "Really. These scratches barely even hurt!" Not until she touched them, and it brought tears to his eyes. "Did I say _barely?_ I meant _a lot_. Please don't touch them."

But, as Wendy treated his injuries, Natsu came to a decision: he would leave well enough alone, even if he had to step all over his heart to do. Because he valued Lucy more than a romantic relationship with her, and he valued his friends more than his own wellbeing. So he was giving up, words he thought he'd never be saying, but he supposed it was for the greater good. He just needed to take a…vacation of sorts, to get his mind in the right place, and he'd be fine. Perfect. Excellent.

"All done!" she said after a moment, stepping away. "You'll still need to rest the next few days, but your broken arm has been reduced to a sprain, and your other injuries were lessened to some slight bruising."

"Hey, thanks a lot, Wendy!"

"Now," Porlyusica said with a deathly tone, "you all really can _get out of my house!_ "

* * *

 **Author's Note -** Said it before on 'Natsu and Salamander,' but for some odd reason, it's really hard to bring myself to write for these two stories. Nonetheless, I'm trying to get better with updates, so hopefully it won't take a month/two months again for another, especially with the summer coming up - more free time to write.


	6. in which lucy cracks

**» chapter six**

 **» in which lucy cracks**

* * *

Lucy found it peculiar that, upon entering the Guild the next day, it was short of Natsu but not Happy. Like that, she assumed he hadn't gone far, since he would've taken the cat with him, but Natsu didn't show up the next day either, or the day after that. Three days of no Natsu in Fairy Tail? It was so quiet it was awful.

"Happy, where's Natsu?" Lucy finally asked on the fourth day. Happy shrugged and looked away.

"Dahlia." Dahlia was a large but underpopulated town on the eastern end of central Fiore, where the mountain ranges were particularly hard to climb, housing several dangerous beasts and precarious drops ranging from fifty feet to five hundred. It made sense, then, that the Dahlian citizens were all Guild-level wizards or treasure hunters, and that it housed one of the greater Guilds in the country.

"He's in Sabertooth?" He nodded. "Why?"

"He, ah, wanted to see Sting and Rogue?" Happy was as bad as, or maybe worse of a liar than Natsu. She planted her hands on her hips and stared him down.

"Ha-ppy. Tell me the truth."

"That is the truth!" he pleaded. Then he abruptly burst into tears, flying away from her. "Charla, Lucy is scaring me!"

"Oh jeez," she sighed, dropping into a barstool. Mirajane came over and dropped a mug of coffee in front of her.

"On the house," she smiled.

"Thanks, Mira." She blew on it a little before taking a sip. "Do _you_ know why Natsu's gone?"

"Sadly, no—I didn't even know that he'd left. I wonder why he hasn't said anything?"

"We're all wondering," she complained. "Natsu has been awfully quiet for a while."

"Oh, dear," she said worriedly.

"Exactly. The fact that he's not bouncing off of walls or starting up brawls lately is even more unsettling. He even refused to take a request with us! He's just been so un-Natsu-like we can't help but worry."

"Have you tried asking him?"

"I have, and while he usually is very frank, he's apparently learned how to keep a secret _now_ , of all times," she grumbled. "I wish he would've had that ability when we were throwing the Master that surprise party…" Mira giggled at the memory but quickly sobered.

"I believe that, if it was anything too serious, Natsu would tell you guys in a heartbeat," she said. "Especially you. You two are incredibly close."

"You mean like how he told me he was leaving for a year after the Tartaros fight?" she pointed out, the memory still leaving a bitter taste on her tongue that the coffee couldn't wash away. Mira pursed her lips briefly before sighing.

"Natsu isn't the smartest person around, which anybody that knows him can agree to, but he's more astute and complex than most give him credit for. He does have layers to his mind and he knows that other people do too. Maybe he's got it in his head that whatever it is that's the issue will affect you guys one way or another, and he'd rather bear it alone?"

"If that is the case, I'd Lucy Kick him from the irony." He was the one who bashed others' heads in for keeping secrets from their friends—it would make him look thoughtless and hypocritical to do the same. "Although, I think I have a little clue to his weirdness."

"Oh?" she asked, curiosity piqued. Lucy blushed and shifted uneasily at the thought.

"Well, Gemini suggested that maybe, possibly, Natsu—"

"What about Natsu?" Erza asked, sitting next to her. Lucy yelped in surprise as she turned and calmly ordered a strawberry croissant. Mira went to the kitchen for a moment, leaving them alone. Well, mostly.

"We're talking about Natsu, are we?" Gray said, showing up in a similarly abrupt fashion.

"Where has he been anyway?" Loki asked, putting his arms around Lucy's neck. Mira returned with Erza's plate, smiling and greeting their new company.

"Lucy, as you were saying?"

"I…don't remember," she mumbled into her fingers, flushing even redder. "A-And anyway, I'm gonna check the board." She slithered away before the others could prod her, giving a greeting to Nab as she checked the requests. But it was only a distraction: if Natsu was hiding out in the Sabertooth Guild, then she'd go track him down. With how off he had been acting, he may have been preparing to pull another "training journey," and while she wouldn't stop him from doing so, she wouldn't let him leave with just a stupid letter again. But she also had a feeling he'd be less open if she brought the whole gang along as well.

 _Then again,_ she thought, _the others have a right to know. We're a team, after all, and friends._

"Lucy?" Loki asked. She sighed and turned to them.

"I heard from Happy a while ago that Natsu's in Sabertooth. I didn't think it was a big deal, that maybe he was just visiting for a bit, but he's been gone a while now and with no message for us…"

"Could this be like his training journey a while ago?" Erza said, voicing her worries.

"I don't know," Lucy replied pensively, "but I don't want to wait another year to find out."

"We could try the Master's Lacrima. He uses to communicate with other Guild Masters," she suggested. "We could see if Sting knows the story."

Makarov's office was empty, but the Lacrima was sitting on his desk next to a stack of paperwork. Erza unequipped her gloves to pick it up with bare hands, and upon contact with her skin it came to life. "Sabertooth Guild Master, Sting Eucliffe," she spoke. The Lacrima blurred with white light for a moment and soft voices preceded the image of water.

"Hey, uh, hello, Master Makarov?" Sting's face appeared a moment later, grinning and drenched. Behind him was a pool filled with his Guild mates.

"Erza Scarlet," she said, "with Gray, Lucy, and Loki."

"Oh!" The image disappeared for a few seconds before he returned, drying his face with a towel. "I'm gonna take a wild guess…this is about Natsu?"

"So he _is_ there!" Lucy said. Sting nodded in response.

"Been here the last few days. I dunno, he just showed up and asked if he could hang with us for a bit. I didn't think too much of it."

"Is he there now?"

"Ah…yeah. Hold on a sec." Water again obscured the image, followed by Sting's delighted shouts, then Rogue's grumbling, and finally a very familiar whoop. "Oi, Natsu, there's a call for you?"

"What? You're just trying to save your ass!" Natsu called back, his voice sounding warbled—he was probably underwater.

"No, I'm serious—let go of my head, you'll regret _bleurgh!_ "

"Don't lose the Lacrima in the pool again," Rogue complained, his face taking up the screen. "Natsu, take it."

"Okay, but I don't see why someone would be call—oh, right," he said, his voice falling flat as his face was in view. He gave them a sheepish smile and itched the back of his head "H-Hey, guys."

"Natsu, why did you just pick up and leave all of a sudden?" Lucy sighed. Part of her was eased at seeing he was alright, but she was still annoyed with him.

"I…wanted…to see Sting and Rogue," he said carefully, looking everywhere but at them.

"The truth, Natsu," Erza said with a tone that suggested she would jump through the link and beat the truth out of him herself. He swallowed and fiddled with his hands.

"I had to, y'know, do some thinkin'," he said after a moment, exhaling. "And I couldn't think clearly around…you guys." It was obvious that he was about to name someone in particular, then changed it around.

"And this thinking of yours requires a pool to happen?" Gray pointed out dryly.

"Hey, that wasn't my fault. Sting said that he's a better swimmer than me and I couldn't let that slide!" he argued. "So, uh, one thing led to another, and here I am."

"Well, when are you returning?" Loki asked finally.

"Um…" He trailed away with a class-A guilty expression.

"Natsu, you better not say another year," Lucy warned. He blinked at her, surprised, and frowned.

"What? Of course it won't be _that_ long. It's just, I really don't know."

"But what I don't understand is that you have a problem, yet you didn't think it would help to talk to us about it," Erza said. He made a pained noise and looked away. It was rare that Lucy ever saw Erza looking vulnerable, but that was one of those rare moments as she held the Lacrima closer to her face. "Don't you trust us, Natsu?"

"Shit," he swore, scrubbing at his face. "Of course I trust you guys! I trust you guys with my life! You're my best friends in the world, and…and it's cuz of that that I really don't want to hurt you guys."

"Natsu, how bad is this?" Lucy asked, clasping her hands at her chest. Natsu made a whimpering sort of sound without looking at her.

"I don't know," he said. "Happy told me I'm overreacting, and maybe I am, but…" He shook his head to clear it before looking back at them. "I'm fine though, I promise, and I'll be back, and it won't take another year."

"Wait, Natsu!" Lucy said as he prepared to hang up. "At least…say who the secret concerns," she mumbled tentatively. He stared at her with wide, unblinking eyes, apparently stunned. "Please."

"…It's not you," he said after what felt like an eternity, and although his expression didn't change, his voice was sincere. "I've gotta go."

"Natsu!" she tried, but the connection went dead. The room fell silent as the teammates glanced at each other thoughtfully.

"Was it something we did?" Loki wondered.

"Maybe not," Erza murmured, setting the Lacrima down with a carefully neutral expression. "Maybe he's still torn up about what happened to Igneel."

"If it is that, I wouldn't see him running away like he did," Gray countered. "Whatever it is, he thought it would hurt us. Can't tell if it's his normal stupidity or if it really is some big deal."

"It makes more sense to be the latter, since he's been acting off for the last week," Loki said, crossing his arms. Something about that tingled in the back of her head, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Still, it seemed important.

"Guys, I'm going home for a bit," she said, stepping back. "I want to…think about this."

"You'll be okay?" Erza asked. She nodded and gave them a reassuring smile.

"I'll be fine, promise." She waved before heading back through the hall, dodging the day-comers for the exit. She wasn't trying to run, but she was moving too quickly to be walking as she headed towards her apartment. _I feel like the answer's right in front of me… What happened a week ago? On Sunday, I did the grocery shopping…then Natsu came around and I did more shopping on Monday…and while I was at the market, I saw the new issue of— Oh!_

She made it to her street and unlocked the door, greeting her landlady hurriedly as she rushed upstairs to her apartment. She went to her desk where her new unfinished manuscript lay and shifted the papers aside to find the last issue of Sorcerer's Weekly. She flipped open to the bookmarked page of the photo between her and Natsu.

"Last week was when this came out," she murmured, smoothing the pages down flat. She was on a bench and Natsu was slumped against her since they'd just arrived from a long-distance mission not too long ago, and she let him rest there for a moment. She found herself examining his face too, which seemed much more boyishly innocent in sleep than while he was awake. "And then Natsu started acting out…" Her hands shook on the paper slightly as she remembered Gemini's words. More than ever, they were starting to seem true.

"What have I been doing to him then?" she wondered aloud, covering her face. "I must've been hurting him for the whole week, being with Loki as I am. Moreover, I chose Loki over him—that must have hurt."

But she couldn't go run to him and ask either, because considering his behavior lately, she doubted he would be entirely truthful unless she was, and even then, things were iffy. Disregarding the issue of Loki, Lucy herself wasn't entirely certain of her feelings for Natsu. She might have had a crush on him, but Natsu wouldn't be blowing things so hugely over a crush on his part—it was love at the very least, and she honestly didn't know if she could reciprocate that, mostly because she honestly never found herself thinking that way about him.

"He's loud and rude and obnoxious," she thought aloud, sitting on the edge of her bed. "But also the most caring, most loyal, and most sincere person I've known. The good outweighs the bad with him, but he's just so loud…and rude…and…and…" She sighed, twisting a lock of hair anxiously. "And…I guess this thinking time will do good for the both of us."

* * *

Natsu returned to Magnolia the following week, and when he started a brawl before even opening his mouth for a greeting, things with him seemed fine. Lucy hid away from the action in a corner booth, sharing her lunch of salmon with Happy and watching silently. Usually, the cat had a very one-track mind with fish right in front of him, but his eyes were set on Lucy.

"You're not gonna say anything to him?" he asked.

"He's not really in a state to be talking," Lucy pointed out, mostly to cover up her own misgivings.

"Well yeah, obviously, but if you called out to him, he'd stop." Happy said it very matter-of-factly, and it surprised Lucy to realize it was the truth. Whether falling from the Phantom Lord's HQ or sinking into the depths of a magic clock, he never failed to respond to her voice. Still.

"I'd rather wait."

"Lucy," he said pretty seriously for his usually easygoing nature, "you're procrastinating."

"Wha— What made you say that?" she said with an off-kilter giggle.

"I dunno, I just heard Mira say it to the Master once," he shrugged. "I don't know what it means though." _Of course,_ she thought with an easier laugh. "But you're putting things off here. He missed you, you know."

"I can't imagine that." Considering that he most likely left to get away from her and her actions in the first place.

"Why not?"

"No reason in particular…" Natsu detached himself from the fight as Mira announced that his lunch was ready, and without him the rest of the skirmishes died down and the others returned to their meals. He sat at the bar and ate while Lucy continued burning holes in his back, and after a moment he started looking around curiously. _Oh no!_ she thought as he made eye contact with her from across the hall. To her surprise, he gave her an easy grin and a wave. _I mean, he seems fine now._ She knew she had to talk to him, but things were calm at the moment, so she decided to put it off for another time.

"Lucy," Happy said again.

"What, Happy? Things are fine right now and Natsu just got back—I'll let him get settled, then we'll talk." Happy stared at her for a moment before sighing.

"Really?"

"I don't like having things rough with Natsu any more than you do. He's my best friend." Actually, he was more than a best friend, but there wasn't a word for that that didn't breach romantic boundaries. "And I fully intend to resolve this…soon."

"What I don't get is why don't you resolve it as soon as possible."

"It's not that simple!" she protested.

"Or you're scared," he said.

"In a way," she confessed with a little sigh. Then, leaning in close, she asked in a quiet voice, "Can you tell me if Natsu likes me, Happy?"

"Nope," he said with a grin.

"Come _on_ , you blasted feline, you can fly about and spread every little bit of my life on any other day, but _just the once_ I could use your blabbermouth," she hissed without separating her teeth. Happy was undisturbed as he picked up the remainder of the salmon.

"Because it's fun to say your secrets! Especially when you get that little vein on the side of your forehead…yeah, that one," he said, pointing it out.

"I'll choke the fish out of you, cat!"

"Charla! Lucy is scaring me again!" he complained, growing wings and flying off again. Lucy sighed, then cursed at the cat when she realized that he had taken the last of her lunch with him.

"Excuse me, Mira," Lucy said as she passed the table, two orders in hand, "could I get some more salmon?"

"You'll have to come to the bar to get it, since I'll be taking a break after this," she said with smile that looked a bit too conspiratorial before continuing. Of course, the great She-Devil would not be tired from carrying some plates—she was more trying to get Lucy in a situation where she would have to confront Natsu. If that was the case, she would eat at home. It was cheaper anyway, considering things with their team had yet to be straightened out and she had to plan for the next month's rent. She stood, straightened her red and gold-plaid sundress, and grabbed her bag as she headed to the Guild doors.

"Hey, Luce, wait for me!"

She halted just outside of the Guild as Natsu followed, coming to a stop with his usual grin on his face, if a little shamefaced. "I, uh, never got to apologize to Loki for, ya know, breaking his leg, since I left for the last couple of weeks and I don't see him today?"

"He isn't mad—none of us are—but you can't do it for the next few days anyway. He's out on a job with Cana," Lucy explained. That was easy territory to coast across. "She's his unofficial, on-and-off teammate."

"Kind of like his girlfriends," he remarked absently, which was a very Natsu-ish thing to do, then his cheeks immediately colored and he put his hands in the air. "Whoa, I didn't mean it like that."

"It's alright. You know we're not really dating, that I just did it for the sake of Sorcerer's Weekly?" she said, steeling herself internally. He nodded with no visible change in his expression.

"Because of that pic of us," he supplied.

"And that doesn't…bother you at all?" she pressed. He blinked as if the thought never occurred to him.

"Um, no. Why would it? I mean, we aren't _together,_ after all." A note of resentment sunk into his tone and it made Lucy wince, but it vanished a moment later. "I can kinda get why you wouldn't want to be seen with me that way though. I'm fine with it." He shrugged and rubbed his neck.

"It's not that I really don't want to be seen like that with you, Natsu, but…" She bit her lip. What was it, exactly? Why was it that the picture put her so on-edge? Why was she afraid to be known as Natsu-and-Lucy, Lucy-and-Natsu? No matter how long she thought about it, she could never find an answer.

"I said it's fine, Luce," he insisted airily. "That lovey-dovey stuff ain't really for me anyway." And like before, on the Lacrima, he sounded incredibly candid. "We're still cool, aren't we?"

 _I'm not the one with the problem,_ she thought, but was she _really_ the sensible one there? She saw an opportunity and took it. "Yes, we're cool," she smiled. He grinned and gave her dual thumbs-up before heading back inside. She waved, but found herself stuck to the spot, a knot of disquiet curling in her stomach.

 _If we're "cool," why is that the highly personal Natsu, who would always throw his arm around me and break into my house and sleep in my bed, wouldn't stand closer than twelve inches to me now?_

* * *

The impersonality persisted over the next few weeks as, while Natsu treated her much the same, he didn't perform as much of his old deeds, namely the touchy-feely ones. He sat next to her in the Guild, but always kept his hands and feet to himself; he greeted her verbally but never physically; and, most oddly, after the one twosome mission they performed up in Shirotsume, they did their customary high-five, and when they discovered the reward was _not,_ for once, halved, he dodged her subsequent hug attempt like the plague.

 _He is most certainly not "fine."_

Lucy thought this as she sat on the edge of her bed and clapped her new book shut. Usually, she could barely read two sentences without Natsu and Happy barging in and making a huge ruckus, but without them, much the same happened, or rather didn't happen—a catch-22, essentially. They hadn't so much as stepped foot on her street in the last two weeks.

 _If this isn't evasion, I don't know what is,_ she thought, standing and shelving the book before stationing herself at the window. There was a lock on it that she had purchased the eve of the fifth or so time Natsu caught her stepping out of the bath, but then and now, she rarely ever locked it. Only…when she went on dates. _That date's the reason I'm in this mess now._ She sighed and sat on the bed again, wringing her ponytail between her hands. _There's nothing bad about being seen…that way…with Natsu, is there?_

 _Yes, there is!_ another corner of her mind argued, but still, she couldn't put her finger on it. It was something that filled her with dread, as before a fight, some sort of fear…

The window clicked as it slid open and her heart leapt as she spun around. Instead of a Dragon Slayer, a naked man slipped through. "Hey, Lucy," he greeted.

"Gray! What in the hell—where is your underwear?" she cried, covering her eyes. He gave himself a cursory glance but quickly waved it off.

"I've gotta talk to you."

"Can you put something on first?" He sighed and took the knitted blanket from her couch, wrapping it around his hips to give himself some sort of decency. "What kind of emergency is it that you're barging into my home at eight in the night and stark naked?"

"You don't have to be so antagonistic," he grumbled as he took a seat, as if he _wasn't_ barging into her home at eight in the night and stark naked. "You and flames-for-brains have been acting strangely at odds lately."

"Then why not talk to him about it?"

"What? You think he'd just give up and spill his guts to me like that?" he snorted. "For someone so simpleminded, he most often tends to be a mental steel trap—impossible to cave."

"I wish I could see in his mind one time," she grumbled, crossing her arms under her chest. "Since his little vacation to Dahlia, he's been a little…weird with touching me. As in, he avoids it whenever possible." Gray raised an eyebrow.

"Really? I mean, I wasn't paying much attention, but I assumed he always had his hands on you." She flushed a little at his wording and huffed.

"It's just the way he is." Gray gave a sigh that said _I brought myself into this situation, might as well finish it_ and gave her his signature flat look.

"I'm not the fondest of jumping into other people's relationship situations, not like Mirajane, but considering that Natsu's my best friend and you both have been thrown since this whole thing started, I want to ask: why did that Sorcerer's Weekly thing bother you so much?"

"I don't know," she answered. "Honestly, I don't. But, seeing as you're Natsu's best friend, can you tell me why it bothered _him_ so much?" She feared his answer, that it would confirm her suspicions.

"I don't believe I'd be right to say," he said coolly. "It's Natsu's business, after all."

"Of course," she sighed. "But can you tell me one thing?" He raised his eyebrows and she cleared her throat, staring at her feet instead of him. "Did I…hurt him?" He didn't miss a beat.

"Of course you did." The remark was as sharp as his icy sword, and Lucy's heart stuttered.

"I…I'm going to talk to him. Right now," she said after a moment, retrieving some sandals from under the bed. She looked over her shoulder at Gray, who was heading back through the window. "Where are you going?"

"Well, I'd walk you to his house, but I've gotta find my clothes before someone picks them up," he said. "I can't afford to lose another outfit. But I hope you and Natsu can resolve your issues now, because I hate playing the middle man." He disappeared, and Lucy thought that despite Gray's words, Natsu must have told him a fair bit of his own thoughts.

 _I never wanted to hurt him,_ she thought, searching for her housekeys. _I never did! I just didn't want people to see Natsu and I in that way, because… And because of that, I made him run away, and now he will barely touch me and he's_ hurt _and he's_ been _hurting quietly and it's my fault._ Tears built in her eyes and she covered her mouth to hide a hiccup. "What kind of Celestial Mage am I, trampling over our relationship like that? No, what kind of _person_ am I?" She wanted to go to Natsu right away, but the same problem from earlier remained: she had no idea what to say to him.

"I can't say some magic words and make things go back to exactly how they were," she murmured, staring at her window. "That's something no magic can do."


	7. in which natsu is out of commission

**Crimsonlink310** I have no idea when the story takes place actually. It's this little bubble of space-time post-Avatar, with Makarov back, but before the final war. This is actually the first time I've written a story so far into the canon timeline...I don't know what to do with myself.

* * *

 **» chapter seven**

 **» in which natsu is out of commission**

* * *

He was cool, they were cool. Him and Lucy were cool, he made sure of that. At least, he tried to—there was a sense of unease that he couldn't waste away in two weeks, not in two months, probably not even in two years. Every time they touched brought that unease to a boil and reminded him of just how much her presence frayed his self-control, but since he couldn't run away altogether, he settled for just avoiding physical contact as much as possible. It was easier. Physically easier, yes. And he could still do missions with her to help her with her rent payments. Things were, more or less, back to normal, as if Sorcerer's Weekly never happened.

"You're upset."

"No, I'm not," Natsu replied without even looking up, focusing on his push-ups. Two hundred eight, two hundred nine…

"I don't blame you for being upset," Happy continued nevertheless from atop Natsu's back. "Cuz I know I got really sad whenever Charla and I fought."

"Happy, I said I'm not. C'mon, I'm gonna lose count." A pause, then he stopped in lean and rest position, watching his sweat drip to the floorboards. "And even if I somehow _am_ , it's really minor. Lucy and I are cool."

"Are you really now?" he said rather dryly.

"Yup, we are. I took a break, reevaluated my life, and now I'm fine." Well, his heart was fine—his dragon instincts, on the other hand, were still screwing with his mind on occasion, but since he couldn't turn _that_ off, he was learning to live with it. Happy leapt off and began to walk away, which was when Natsu noticed something peculiar. "Hey, Happy, where's your green pack?"

"Hmm?" He was trying to pull a piece of fabric from one of the house's many junk piles. It could've been a towel or a blanket or a sheet. "The material was really worn and it fell apart while I was flying here. Magnolia's big so I couldn't figure out where it might've dropped. Why?"

"Happy!" he exclaimed, jumping into a crouch, his voice high with exasperation. "Lucy's gift was in there!"

"What?" It took a few moments to click, then Happy's eyes bugged. "You mean her birthday present?"

"Yes!" They forgot her birthday the past three years, and she always waved them off, so this time, they prepared two months in advance and put the gift in something that they'd _supposedly_ never lose track of. "Hey, what if Lucy thinks that we didn't get her anything on purpose because of this whole situation?"

"We never get her anything! Why would she think differently now?"

"I don't know! Girls think weird." Like how she always thought he crouched in waiting to see her naked body fresh out of the shower or something. For a writer, she didn't know too many words, one such being _coincidence_. "We'll just… We'll just buy a new one!"

"Natsu, that costed fourteen thousand Jewel! It took three missions with the whole team to save that much, and her birthday's a few days away—we don't have that kind of time."

"Then let's split up. Search the house for some Jewel!" They nodded and broke apart, diving through the piles around the main room, in the bedroom, and in the bathroom, plus the edge of the woods for good measure. Natsu found a thousand Jewel in their "rainy day savings" in a musty old mattress, and Happy found another five hundred stuck to the ceiling—neither could explain that. "Okay, so we still have over ten thousand left to make up."

"What about some requests in town?" Happy suggested.

"It's already past four—all the easy jobs are taken by now," he scowled. "Damn."

"Why don't you strip?"

"Wait, what the hell?" he said, looking back towards Happy.

"I've seen women just throw money at Gray when he walks through the streets," he explained. "Maybe you should try it?"

"Ha. Yeah, okay. I'd sooner dye my hair purple than be like him. Anyway. Let's go around town and see if we can find some work. Maybe there are some rogue Mages we can catch for a reward?"

"Good idea!" Happy agreed. Natsu went to find a shirt that wasn't drenched in sweat, then he and Happy were out.

They went to the Rune Knight outpost on the edge of Magnolia and asked if there was, quote, "any expensive ass to kick." The Captain gave them a very flat look. "The same Fairy Tail Mage that causes two hundred thousand Jewels' worth of damage per week is coming to help us," he said flatly. "I just might die and go to heaven."

"Don't do it before we get paid, okay?" He seemed considerably less punch-drunk as he pointed them towards the Wanted board.

"Okay, so who here's the most expensive?" Happy said, flying up to get a better look at them.

"Would you believe it's Ichiya?" Natsu said flatly, pointing out said poster with an eighty thousand bounty for "sexual crimes" and "just being a creep." "I mean, not to say we don't have a chance in fighting him, but…"

"Okay, the second highest is this guy up in Hargeon. It says he uses Possession Magic." Natsu flashed back to the fight with the Vulcans and grimaced. "No?"

"No way in hell. —Okay, look: fifteen thousand for some bastard Ice Mage hiding out on Mount Hakobe. It should be easy to burn his ass to a crisp and drag his charcoal back here."

"Well, maybe not quite in that condition, but he does look easy," Happy said, staring at the poster. Natsu nodded and snatched the poster from the board.

"More often than not, things are unpredictable when it comes to us."

"Meaning?"

"I'll get my overnight pack. We'll probably need it."

* * *

"Shit!" Natsu exclaimed as the wind picked up, swirling even more freezing snow around them. Happy could barely fly straight across the mountain path from the grey and white obscuring their vision all around. "You think that Mage's doing this?"

"Maybe!" He had to scream over the howling winds. "It usually isn't so crazy stormy around here!"

"I don't get how he can even tell where we are though."

"I have to land, Natsu! It's too hard to fly!" Natsu nodded as Happy gradually descended until his toes were scraping against freezing snow. As soon as they were safely grounded, Happy's magic faded and he fell into Natsu's arms. "Tired…"

"It's okay, it's been a long journey. Let's find a cave or something to crash in." Which was easier said than done, considering how low visibility was at the moment. "…Or maybe we can dig a hole to lie in?"

"You mean, dig a grave?" he pointed out. Natsu shrugged.

"Just throwin' ideas around." Even though the snow melted beneath his feet, the blizzard replenished it even faster, and he lost his sandals more than a few times trying to trudge through. He hated to admit it, but he was getting a little cold, expending all of his magic like that. Natsu used an arm to shield his eyes from the flecks of ice in the air as he moved to where he thought the snow was a little thinner.

"Cold," Happy complained, pushing his face into Natsu's bare chest. He upped his body heat while growling in frustration—why was it so hard to move through a stupid storm? He was about ready to thaw a shelter for them when he caught a new, familiar scent. He took off in its direction, and there was most definitely less snowfall where he headed. "Where are we going?"

"Towards that smell," he said, his voice cracking a little as the icy wind messed up his throat. Happy raised his head to scent the air and his eyes enlarged further.

"It smells like a person!"

"Right. And odds are that it's the same bastard we're tracking down now. The sooner we kick his ass, the sooner we can get back to the sun."

At the end of the trail wasn't a person, but there was a frosty crevice embedded into a rock wall that reeked of man. Natsu stalked inside with ears perked, but he couldn't hear anything besides themselves, and even the scent was a little stale. He set Happy down with a sigh. "He was here, but he's gone now," Natsu said, sliding down the stone wall to the slush-covered floor. "But at least we found somewhere to stay."

"Can we make a fire?" he asked, his breath misting in the air. Natsu sighed again and shrugged. Happy took it as a cue to go in his pack for a cluster of Lucy's rejected manuscripts and Natsu set them alight. They spent a moment warming in the small campfire and wondering what their next move would be.

"It's hard," Happy said eventually, breaking the silence of the crackling flames. Natsu rolled his shoulders to loosen up the muscles as he looked over at the bundle of blue fur.

"What is, li'l buddy?"

"Loving and not being loved back." Natsu wasn't as taken aback by that as he expected to be, but his eyes widened a little nonetheless. After a moment he shrugged it off, staring at the fire again.

"I've never thought about it before, ya know. But now that I do, it's that feeling that gives me the strength to fight for her, so it's not that bad." He shook his head with a sigh. "And anyway, I said we're cool. Lucy's still my best friend and I'm happy to be around her at all. And anyway-anyway, we should get to sleep cuz it doesn't look like that Ice Mage guy is gonna come knockin' anytime soon." He ate the fire to put it out before flopping down on his sleeping mat. It was cold even for him, but as Happy was using his blanket, he had to make do.

He maybe got two or three hours of sleep before Happy's startled meow jolted him awake. He instantly jumped into a crouch to find the blanket thrown and the cat gone, but the scent of another man remained in the now still cold. "Happy!" he growled, taking off down the cave.

"Why are you so upset?" came a gravelly voice from even further down. The walls of the tunnel became jagged with roughly-cut ice and stalactites, and they became narrower and with a downward slope. "You've found me, just as you intended—in return, I've found your cat."

"He wasn't lost to begin with! Give him _back_ or I'll bake you!" Natsu roared, his voice echoing ominously off of the walls. The stalactites above him gave a single groan before falling in harmony. He leapt forward, sandals skidding across the frozen ground as they stabbed into the trail of his wake in a neat line. It was semi-dark earlier, but as he descended, a new light source provided ominous reflections on the multifaceted ice.

"You'll have to find me first." The ground beneath his feet abruptly gave way altogether, causing Natsu to plunge down a hole lined with ice spears like teeth. He bashed his fists together and let his fire burn his safe way through, and the magic didn't diminish as he hit a soft pile of slush and turned it into ankle-deep water. Around him were frosted stone walls that twisted and turned in every direction, forming a manmade maze.

"You think I can't?" he said, scenting the air. "I can smell your ass a mile away." He followed the smell around his walls, his feet kicking up little waves as he went. He didn't notice at first, but the water's level was progressively increasing, and after just a few paces, it was at his knees.

"Oh, a Dragon Slayer, are you? Well, let's hope you're a Water Magic user." Natsu produced more heat than an average person's body at any given moment, but as he was drenched and the air around him cooled him faster than he could reheat, he was expending way too much magic without even having an opponent to fight. Before the water could rise enough to actually hamper him, he lashed out with his foot at the nearest stone column. A shower of slush exploded upon impact, swiftly followed by a hurricane of stone fragments that left dusty air in its wake. The space was left unoccupied for a good third of the cavern's area.

"Let's hope you're more durable than those rocks," he advised with a fanged smirk, lighting his fist ablaze for emphasis. The Mage's dismayed grunt was just as explicit as Happy's elated shout. A _bang_ sounded from somewhere distant, then the distinct noise of gushing water. He saw it a moment later as it spouted from a crack in the wall left from his haphazard remodeling, quickly bringing the level to his upper back and utterly taking away his free movement.

"Let's see how well you fight as an ice block!" Steam rolled from Natsu and the surrounding water, but he didn't react quickly enough before the top of his head was submerged, and as he watched, the water reached the serrated ceiling of the cavern. The cold seeped through his thin clothes and stunned him for a moment, but he was quick to recover and swam towards the crack in the wall, halting once he detected magic emanating through it. A split second later, all the water in the cavern froze, locking him in place.

 _Damn it all,_ he thought, flexing his arms to no avail. He exerted his magic to return the ice to liquid, but all that did was submerge him again, and as strong as he was, he couldn't create fire underwater.

 _Looks like I gotta burn all this water away!_

He clenched his fists and released as much magic as he could. The ice all around him melted and came to a bubble that echoed like thunder in his ears. Eventually he had defrosted the entire room and brought all of it to scalding temperature. He still pumped more of his fire free, even though his body started cooling down as a result, until he could feel the cavern's walls shaking. He said a pretty cool line too, if only it could be heard underwater. Even if it could've, the sound of the Dragon Slayer-brand geyser cutting through the stone would've drowned out his words.

Without the water, Natsu was just a big fireball melting all the snow around him, but, having very literally blown the roof from the joint, he wasn't trapped in a mini ocean, and he easily swam back to dry land. He saw Happy's blue tail poking out of a snowdrift some dozen feet away, and a man in scorched snow gear a little ways further.

"Hot!" Happy exclaimed as Natsu pulled him free, eyes wide. Then he hit the ground with a puff of dust and blinked. "…Oh, it's cold again."

"Yeah, sorry, buddy," Natsu said with a grin, itching his neck. He nodded his head at the unconscious Mage, then glanced at the massive icy lake he'd left right on the side of the mountain. "Um, got a little carried away?"

"Just a tad," he replied, but he was laughing as he did so. Natsu laughed with him until he was cut off by a sneeze.

"Oh, jeez," he muttered, wiping his nose. "I'm really feelin' the cold now."

"You want me to carry you?" Happy asked as he was heading towards the Mage. Natsu shook his head with a small smile.

"Nah, I'll be fine. My fire'll be back soon enough and I'll be f-fi- _achoo!_ " He rubbed his arms with a disgruntled expression. "Let's just head back before I freeze to death out here."

* * *

What kind of irony was it that Natsu went out to Mount Hakobe to get some money for Lucy's birthday present, then he couldn't even give it to her because the stupid cold made him sick? And he _hated_ being sick with a passion.

"Want me to go give it to her?" Happy was standing in front of the couch with the gold-wrapped gift in his little paws. Natsu wasn't sure if his nod could be seen from within his cocoon of blankets so he muttered an agreement. "I'll get you some food from the Guild too!" he added as the window creaked open, then it was quiet in their little shack.

Humorously enough, Natsu often woke up in their shack with alarm, simply because he'd gotten so used to waking up in Lucy's bed. He honestly missed that, but considering how bad his self-control would get just _thinking_ about her, he didn't want to risk her life while she was defenselessly asleep. But he missed eating her food and reading her manuscripts and even taking her Lucy Kicks to the head. He missed cracking jokes about her weight and her sensitivity and her weirdness. It wasn't so much that he wanted to go back to how they were for his own convenience, so he wouldn't have to suffer through watching her be with any other guy save for himself, but he missed just being friends with her.

"That's why," he mumbled to himself, tightening his hand against his chest. "Maybe this gift'll change that… Or maybe it's just wishful thinking." He closed his eyes and rolled onto his back, his face twisting up in obvious discomfort. "Damn it, no matter how many blankets I get, I'm still cold. I feel like I've been wrestling with that Ice Princess all day. And my head hurts and my nose is full… Freaking sucks."

There was a knock at the door, startling him from his stupor. He looked over in interest and called that it was open—it didn't have a lock anyway. Usually, his dragon's smell and hearing would tell him who the guest was, but in that state, he could barely breathe, let alone smell. Soft footsteps set on the wood as the door creaked open.

"Hey," Lucy said quietly, blinking at him like a wild deer. He blinked back at her, similarly stunned.

"Lucy? What're you doing here?"

"You haven't been at the Guild for a few days," she explained, shutting the door and placing her hands behind her back. "You've been taking off from the place a lot recently—you could give Gildarts a run for his money." She chuckled at her own joke while her eyes raked over his place and him. "What're _you_ doing, wrapped up like that?"

"I was on Mount Hakobe and froze my ass off and now I'm sick."

"Really? You get sick?" she questioned with wide eyes. He chuffed in dry amusement but didn't take his eyes off her. Eventually she took a reluctant step forward, still with her hands held back. He shifted around to release his upper body from the blankets and cupped his hands behind his head. _Why is_ she _suddenly scared of me?_

"I don't bite, you know," he said airily, giving her a half-smile. "Not contagious either." She hesitated again, but after a moment she shook her head.

"That's not why…" She blinked and looked around once more. "Where's Happy?"

"Oh, he just went looking for…you… Uh," he said with a sheepish grin, "I guess you just missed him. But since you're here, happy birthday."

"Thanks, but…I really just wanted to talk to you." Her hair was free rather than her usual ponytail, and it trailed behind her as she crossed the small room to stand in front of him. She paused, then crouched down on her heels, her slight hands clutching her bare knees. Her eyes were grief-stricken as she murmured, "I'm sorry, Natsu."

"Sorry? What about? Why are you so sad?" His protective instincts naturally kicked in and he shoved the blankets away, getting down on one knee alongside her. "There's someone I have to beat up for you?"

"You can't beat this person up, Natsu," she said with a laugh that was equal parts misery and exasperation. "Because it's me. I'm the one that's wronged myself and you."

"What… What are you talking about?" he asked, puzzled.

"Because of that Sorcerer's Weekly—which was nearly a month ago, now that I think about it—I made it seem like I'd choose anyone over being seen with you in…that way, and I hurt you in doing so, so I'm apologizing." He didn't know if he was more surprised that she found him out, or that she had taken so long to do so. He might've been planning to rebuke her, keep his lie up a little longer, but his quick reflexes exposed him before he could come up with anything different, his expression giving him away.

"I don't blame you for that anyway, so you don't need to apologize."

"You should blame me!" she protested, and he could tell that she'd been torn up about that for a while. "I didn't take your feelings into consideration at all. What kind of friend does that, huh?"

"You wouldn't have known that I'd been bothered," he said a bit sourly. "I _shouldn't_ have been bothered at all, because I said before, I get why you wouldn't want that. I'm not the best guy around, not suave and romantic and polished like Loki is, and you're…" He gestured to her with both hands, expression slightly puzzled as he searched for the right words. "You're… You're Lucy Heartfilia, the world's niceness and all that stuff just…smooshed into one person!" He clapped his hands together with fingers linked for emphasis. "We wouldn't be all that…compatible."

"I don't want you be Loki anyway," she said with brows furrowed. "Not that there's anything wrong with Loki, but I like you because you're Natsu." She said that much when she was drunk. "You're loud and obnoxious and you pull stupid pranks and you always seem to jump into my apartment when I'm in the middle of a bath" he probably could've lived without _that_ bullet to his pride, however, "but I simply _can't_ imagine _not_ having you around to do all those stupid things. A day without a little of Natsu's adventurous spirit is tantamount to a day without the sun. Or, to speak in your terms, a life without meat."

His jaw dropped despite himself and he couldn't quite manage to pick it up again. "Lucy, you're serious? I mean _that_ much to you?"

"Of course! You're my best friend and I'd never hurt you on purpose, as sure as I'm a Celestial Mage. I'm so sorry for ever doing so in the first place, and…I really hope you can forgive me," she finished awkwardly, looking away while wringing her hands. Her eyes shone with unshed tears, making his heart stutter in his chest. "I shouldn't have made such a big deal about that stupid magazine in the first place. It was a tabloid—they put stupid propaganda like that all the time! There was a story once that I'd had kittens with Happy, what even?"

"That'd be a sight," Natsu said dreamily, and he didn't return until Lucy smacked his chest, an embarrassed blush on her cheeks. "Lucy," he said seriously, grabbing her wrists to still her hands. "There's nothing you could do that I wouldn't forgive you for. Okay, the whole thing threw me a little…a lot…but that was it, I was stunned. I didn't, nor do I, hate you for it or—or anything like that! So do me a favor and stop crying, okay?" He choked up himself as the tears fell anyway. "Wha— Lucy, come on! Do you want to hit me? because you can hit me!"

"Natsu," she said in a crackling voice. He gulped and met her eyes, then choked up again as her arms were suddenly around his neck. The surprise was so great, in fact, that he hit the ground, his back colliding against the wood as she laid on top of him, her face in the side of his neck. "This is fine, isn't it?" she said into his hair. He wanted to speak up, but to his shock, it _was_ fine. Perhaps because his protectiveness over her and concern for her wellbeing overrode his draconic needs.

"Yeah…yeah," he said quietly, wrapping his arms around her waist and letting his head hit the ground. "This is fine."

They were like that until Natsu told her that Happy was returning, and she quickly scrambled away with a blush over the entirety of her upper body. Happy glided through the window and into the couch, beaming when he saw Lucy and Natsu with a grin on his face. "You guys are okay now?" he asked.

"Y-Yuh-huh," she murmured into her hands. Then her eyes were drawn to the large gift box. "Is that for me?"

"Yup!" Happy dropped it into Lucy's waiting arms before flying into the one other room of the house, snickering all the while. It was Natsu's turn to turn away and flush as he heard Lucy carefully take apart the wrapping paper to bare the box, then her surprised gasp as she opened it.

"A dress? You bought a dress?" she said with a snort. "Not gave me one of your old t-shirts?"

"They come from the heart," he muttered in his defense.

"And you've also poured your blood, sweat, and tears into them, quite literally," she said dryly, but with good humor as she unfolded the fabric. He glanced at it from the corner of his eyes, seeing the piece he'd chosen himself. It was kind of short, not that he had her height memorized or anything, and sleeveless like her other dresses, but it had a high neck laced with gold that complimented the knitted white base. "Oh!" she exclaimed as she saw the part that made him think of her: the base was hemmed with little golden filaments shaped like Zodiac Keys. It was like a charm bracelet for one's entire body. "Natsu, this is…"

"The dress itself, I got at a flea market," he said, crossing his arms and trying to sound passive about it. "But those Zodiac charms I got made at a jeweler's. We lost the original dress, which was easy to replace, but when we got back to the jeweler's in the next town over, it had closed, so we had to go around all Magnolia's sister towns to find another person that'd remake them fast enough."

"You really went out of your way to do this…?" she said in disbelief, holding the fabric to her chest like it was another Key. He shrugged a shoulder.

"Cuz Happy and I always forget your birthday, we tried extra hard this year."

"Thank you," she whispered, wiping her eyes as she beamed at her. "You're really the best guy around, you know?"

"Better than Gray?"

"Tons better," she said with a hint of humor.

"And Erza? And Gajeel? And Laxus?" She nodded along with him.

"Of course, they couldn't hold a candle to you."

"Damn right!" he said, throwing his fists in the air. Lucy laughed at his antics until he sneezed again.

"Shit, forgot I was sick," he grumbled, sniffing loudly. She replaced the gift in the box and stood, earning his curious gaze.

"You should be resting then," she said with a tone that bordered maternal.

"Yes, mom," he smirked, jumping onto the couch and sprawling there. Lucy looked around for a moment before spotting the kitchenette and, setting the box down carefully on a mostly empty table, went to check his fridge.

"You actually have food here!" she said.

"Usually I don't, since I eat at yours, but as of late, we actually had to start going to the market again."

"Okay, well…okay, there's enough to cook here." She took out a raw, bare chicken and dropped it into the sink with a wet sound and a cry of distress. Natsu chuckled at her squeamishness, at which she glared a look that could kill a lesser man, and continued taking vegetables and plants out.

"What're you makin'?"

"You'll see," she said with a smirk. "Where do I get water?"

"Uh…the pump outside?" he said blankly. She huffed crossly and managed a clean pot from the cabinets, pushing through the front door and heading behind the house. Happy returned then, setting himself on Natsu's stomach.

"Lucy's gonna cook?" he asked.

"Uh-huh."

"Good! I was gonna go to the Guild and buy fish but this is better!" Natsu rolled his eyes with a laugh as Lucy returned, struggling a little with the pot full of water before she set it on the furnace stove. She found the firewood easily, but stared at it for a moment. "There's flint in the cupboard," Happy supplied, pointing. Lucy grabbed it and struggled a bit, but after a moment she had a fire going. She let the water boil for a while before using it to wash the vegetables and the chicken, then cut them up carefully.

"It'd be faster with Cancer," Natsu suggested.

"I always cook by myself though. I'm not that much of a princess," she said absently, focused on her task. He realized that he'd never actually seen her prepare the food before and smiled a little. She didn't even squeal again as she cut up the chicken, and after a while the house was filled with the smell of soup. Natsu and Happy were practically drooling by the time she presented them with bowls of soup.

"Let's dig in, Happy!"

"Aye!" They both gulped down the soup, and although both of them had a high resistance to hot temperatures, only one of them was internally fireproof, and Happy cried out as his tongue was burned.

"Lucy, this is really good!" Natsu exclaimed once Happy recovered.

"Ai," Happy slurred through a full mouth.

"You two think everything that you eat is good," she said flatly. "I've never seen you refuse anything."

"We have standards!" Happy protested. "I don't eat just every fish I catch."

"Me too," Natsu added. Lucy rolled her eyes slightly as she went to untangle the blankets.

"And you should rest so you can regain your magic faster! There's no team without our Fire Dragon Slayer."

"You mean, lie down and have you at my beck and call? You don't have to tell me twice," he grinned, flopping back on the couch. Happy emulated his gesture with a similar expression.

"When did I agree to—" Lucy huffed, then smiled at the two of them. "Just for now, because you got me an amazing present." And he felt a sudden stab of guilt.

"It's still your birthday. You don't wanna go out and have fun? I'm pretty sure the Guild's plannin' something big too."

"Natsu, I couldn't enjoy myself if I knew you're still home sick," she told him. "So, if you want me to go out, then you get better as soon as possible." She pulled the blankets over them as Happy didn't seem to want to move and took the emptied bowls. "Okay?"

"Yes, ma'am," they chimed in unison.

"Tell us a bedtime story," Happy added.

"It's, like, three in the afternoon."

"Please," they begged with wide eyes. Lucy sighed and gave in to the two and they cheered with delight. She found a wooden stool and sat directly across from them as they watched eagerly. She hesitated, then gave a smile as she began her story:

"Once upon a time, in a land much like this, a young woman had escaped her cold house and was searching for a place that was the sun of her life, a Guild in Magnolia. Instead, she found a pink-haired boy with motion sickness and his blue cat, and with those two came a personal sun, a warmth and light that followed her wherever she went to always bring a smile to her face…"

* * *

 **Author's Drabble** \- I very rarely get to write Normal Natsu and I love doing so. He's a big ball of energy and a grown man and a child all in one.


	8. in which natsu finally learns

**» chapter eight**

 **» in which natsu finally learns**

* * *

 _"_ _Let's do a mission,_ she said. _Something 'classy,'_ she said," Natsu mimicked quietly as he was being slowly choked to death.

"Be a little less dramatic, will you?" Gray smirked as he pulled the tie's knot as high as it could go, coincidentally at the pulse point of Natsu's throat. The borrowed suit was itchy, hot even to him, and he could barely lift his arms, let alone throw a punch. But, as Erza spared no expense in reminding them, the mission required _blending,_ not _burning._

A few days after Natsu's magic had fully recovered, Erza suggested a mission outside of their usual seek and destroy. And, she insisted with a grave expression as she set the request—exposing the misdeeds of a nobleman during one of his frequent galas—it had absolutely _nothing_ to do with the enormous strawberry concoction baked like a wedding cake within the background of the ballroom's photo. Gray, Lucy, and Natsu knew that that was bullshit, if not by the photo then by the wicked glint in her eyes, but none were brave enough to call her on it. Thus, Natsu's near suffocation by monkey suit.

"There, now you look semi-human," Gray finished, pulling away and crossing his arms. He, on the other hand, didn't have to suffer through getting painted into a suit, because everyone knew he would lose it after a few seconds, and even Natsu could tell that that wouldn't fly in some hotshot's party. Instead, he wore his navy-blue shirt from Galuna Island and his usual black pants and boots. Although Natsu usually avoided him like the plague, he found himself roped into being Lucy's escort, as Erza claimed she would be busy _investigating_ —

 _Investigating that cake,_ he thought, but again held off on saying.

—and he himself had no knowledge what prerequisites there were for a ball/gala/whatever the hell it was supposed to be. He just knew that it was where stuck-up rich guys (not including Lucy!) pranced around speaking nasally to one another with noses held to the sky, or at least that was what some Guild members told him, not that they were any classier than he was.

He sat down hard on the bed of their hotel room with a furious huff. "What's taking Lucy and Erza so long anyway?" he groused, glaring at the door. "Don't they just gotta throw on some dresses?"

"Lucy's noble by nature—of course she'd go all out for this. Erza's the same, minus the status." Gray glanced at Natsu as he snorted. "I didn't ask before, but you and Lucy, you're fine now I see?"

"Yup," he said with a small smile.

"So she likes you back?"

"Nope," he said, the smile fading. "But we're friends, and that's more important to me."

Gray raised his eyebrows as the door opened. Erza was in first, dressed in a fitted evening down with a burgundy bodice that matched her pinned-up hair and a velvety purple skirt. The corset was accented by stiff rods at the inseams, which perplexed Natsu. "How are you gonna fight in that? It looks like you can barely breathe," he pointed out.

"A true lady is always prepared for battle no matter what she wears," Erza beamed. "And besides—" With a wave of her hand, lit by a slight glow of magic, the rods shifted into a full silver breastplate, then vanished as she repeated the movement.

"Okay, I see your point."

"You don't look bad yourself," she praised. "Although you seem barely able to fight in a suit like that."

"Told you!" he snapped at Gray.

"I'm sorry I don't have your size memorized, Sparky," he sneered in response. The argument might've escalated if not for Erza's presence, plus a new one:

"Okay, I'm ready, let's go." Natsu's jaw dropped as Lucy swept into the room. She was a fancy lady before joining Fairy Tail, and probably hit those kinds of extravagant gatherings all the time, so she looked completely at home in the dress she wore. The bodice was dark blue, almost black, with off long silk gloves the same gold as her hair. A cyan ribbon separated the bodice from the skirts, which were puffy and layered like a storybook princess' dress, colored black and stitched with little silver studs in a perfect imitation of the starry night sky. And that wasn't even touching on her makeup or her curled and pinned hair.

"Wow, Lucy, you really went all out," Gray whistled. Lucy flushed a little at the compliment, touching her neck self-consciously. It was such an out of place gesture for her, it made him wonder what _she_ thought of returning to an aristocrat's life.

"She'll most certainly get a private audience with the Lord," Erza beamed. The thought had Natsu fighting back a sneer. Lucy, alone with some old fart stuck-up rich dude? For all he knew, it could be a Duke Everlue clone. "And as she said, we should go before we're late."

The town where the request took place, Charoite, was the largest town on the northwestern end of Fiore, maybe even bigger than Magnolia. It was certainly richer, with older and larger houses in seventy percent of the area, and the town's plaza was taken up by their local church, the Temple of Chalcedony. He had no idea who that Chalcedony guy was, but whoever that may have been, he sure was loaded. The temple's only defining feature was the brass bell clocktower, the rest of it being a large and mainly open space used for local celebrations. Thankfully, the plaza was a few minutes' walk from the hotel.

"Gray, remember the plan," Erza warned as the bright fairy lights of the gala came into view. He gave her a thumbs-up before disappearing into a nearby alleyway. A few moments later, they caught the signaling shine of moonlight from his icy bazooka atop a nearby building. "Natsu, you too," she said, rounding on him now. " _No acting out,_ or it'll draw unnecessary attention."

"Got it," he sighed.

"Lucy?"

"I'll keep an eye on him," she sighed as well. Erza nodded and drew a matching decorative fan from within her deep cleavage. "That's a weapon too?"

"What else do you expect of me?" she smirked, flicking it out. The tips shimmered with an edge that was a little too stiff to be silver _fabric_. "Now, let's mingle."

"Mingle?" Natsu repeated, going a little stiff himself as Lucy curled around his arm.

"It means _socialize_. Let's go stiff around some stiffs."

The gala was dark, but illuminated with floating multicolored fairy lights all around. There was a buffet table and dessert table that Erza beelined for, but Natsu was held off by Lucy. "We greet the other guests first," she told him as he drooled at the sight of roasted duck, ham and lentils, and a frigging alcohol fountain. She tugged him around to the circles of other overdressed couples, nudging Natsu until he introduced them under the alias of Mr. and Mrs. Bloodstone. Their eyes lingered on them just long enough to be uncomfortable; Natsu's hair was charmed to be dark red as to mask his identity, and the dim lights helped, but the disguise felt so bad he was sure everyone could see through it.

"Relax, would you?" Lucy whispered, glancing from the corner of her eye.

"It's hard to relax in this stupid suit," he retorted, but that was just one issue. The whole guise of being a couple—a _married_ couple—was another that made his skin prickle even worse. His instincts hadn't given him grief in a while, but that didn't mean his normal human hormones were quiet too. "Where's that old Lord anyway?"

"He'll come out to signal the start of the dancing," she explained. "A few minutes tops."

"Then what do we do until then? I hope not more stupid introductions," he grumbled. "I wanna go eat."

"Social conventions, Natsu," she reminded him. He made a face and crossed his arms as best as he could without pulling the stitching.

"Screw that! I'm hungry." A nearby couple heard him and shot him dual disgusted looks before slinking away, whispers trailing behind them. Lucy watched them before clinging to him yet again, gluing on a bright and fake smile.

"Don't draw attention, remember?" she said through her teeth. He growled internally but kept his face carefully neutral. "If you think it's horrible tonight, imagine all those years _I_ spent doing this."

He sobered at the thought. "Lucy…"

"It's okay," she said immediately, glancing at his expression. "It's all in the past now. I'm not Lucky Lucy Heartfilia anymore, just Lucy of Fairy Tail." She beamed at the thought, then her eyes took on a special glint. "And tonight, I'm Mrs. Bloodstone, aren't I, dear?"

He couldn't help laughing aloud at the statement. _That_ was Lucy at her best, something he had been missing out on lately. "Alright, let's go rub noses with some more stiffs."

The night drew on, and introducing themselves became less annoying and a lot more boring. Natsu was just about to keel over and die when Erza finally made her way to them, her lipstick looking a little stickier than before with strawberry filling. "Erza! You're done investigating?" Lucy asked quietly. Erza looked perplexed before quickly slipping back into her stoic persona.

"Yes, investigating. I didn't find anything amiss where I looked." Natsu pulled a face that she ignored, probably because they were in a public area. "When is the Lord making an appearance?"

Lucy opened her mouth to respond when the voices all around them hushed down and disappeared. A ball of Light Magic was tossed overhead, and it shone over a particular guest as he ambled his way to the center stage. He didn't look like Duke Everlue, thank the gods, but none less malevolent. His monkey suit had coattails, and he sported a long and curly mustache—evil-frigging-101. Other than that, he looked young, and Natsu could smell traces of an unfamiliar magic on him.

"Greetings, my esteemed guests," he spoke, his voice echoing across the venue. "The citizens of Charoite know me well, but to all newcomers, I am Lord Dendritic Chalcedony, descended of the ones who founded this town and established the religion of it. The citizens also know me as one who takes pleasure in giving joy and entertainment to others, hence this haphazard festival. You all _are_ enjoying it, yes?" Polite clapping ensued while Natsu rolled his eyes. Lord Chalcedony smirked at the sound and raised his arms grandly. In the process, he caught a suspicious glint from one of his many rings. "May the gods watch over us tonight for the rest of this gala!"

Enchanted instruments in the corner rose and began to play smooth, slow music. The Lord swept down and made rounds about the room, greeting some of his more personal guests, while Erza, Lucy, and Natsu huddled together. "Now is the time to get his attention," Erza told them. "Get him to invite you to his offices and see what you can find there. And remember, we have to keep this civilized—you can't be as tactless as with the Duke of Everlue this time around. It won't be as easy to play off to the Magic Council."

"Since when did we try to play off things with the Magic Council?" Natsu snorted, but Erza had already returned to mingling with the strawberry cake.

"He's coming out direction!" Lucy hissed, clenching his bicep. He yelped in surprise at the motion, then caught sight of Chalcedony creeping over, and he put on his least threatening smile.

"What a lovely lady you have there, if I may say," he said with a smile that bordered sickly-sweet, taking Lucy's hand and kissing it. Natsu was pleased at the shudder that ran through her shoulders from the action. "I gave my name, so may I have the honor of learning yours?"

" _Mrs_. Bloodstone," Natsu said curtly, tugging her closer as his possessiveness reared its ugly head. "And I'm Mr. Bloodstone."

"Pleasure to meet both of you then," he amended without missing a beat. Lucy suddenly got a look in her eyes that made Natsu nervous, but he trusted her. She detached herself from his arm and stepped closer to the Lord, just close enough to be personal.

"Please, ignore my husband, he can be a little crazy at times," she purred with a certain inflection to her voice that he recognized easily. Well, seduction was one way to go about their mission, but if he could either burn the whole place down and take the consequences, or watch Lucy ease herself over that slimy bastard, he would put handcuffs on himself and sit on the first train to ERA he could find.

"I would be as well, if I had such a lovely lady at my side," the Lord replied in the same tone, shooting her a private smile. She took it and reciprocated with her usual flirty edge without being too frontal about it.

"We'd hate to talk business in a setting such as this, but my husband and I are pressed for time. Might we have a moment with you in a more private area?"

"Of course," he said, leading them away from the main area. Natsu caught Erza's eye as they passed the dining tables and nodded slightly; she returned the motion quickly. They went around the back of the temple and to the main road before entering the mansion closest to the edifice. The main room was circular and decorated with all kinds of ancient artifacts, from knight armors to hand woven rugs, but it also reeked in there. It took all of Natsu's self-control not to pull away as a servant closed the doors behind them.

 _Smells like Dark Magic,_ he thought, covering his nose. Lucy and Lord Chalcedony carried on their conversation easily however, and he wondered if it was only apparent to him. Chalcedony waved his hand to describe whatever he was talking about, and again Natsu got an odd sensation from his rings. _Something about those rub me the wrong way…_

"My office is just this way," he said, leading them down a side hall full of tapestries. The Dark Magic scent intensified as they proceeded, so much that Natsu's magic started spiking reflexively. Even if it hadn't, the looks Lucy were giving Chalcedony were enough to stave him off.

"I need to…relieve myself," Natsu said carefully—that sounded proper enough. The Lord didn't even spare him a glance as he pointed Natsu towards a fork in the hall. He gave Lucy a purposeful look over his shoulder, and she gave him a quick and encouraging smile in return as he disappeared down the hall. "Gotta find out where that Dark Magic's coming from," he growled, finally stripping away the stupid tie and jacket.

His nose led him around to a different hall, same tapestries. They were designed in familiar shades of violet and dark red. His eyes narrowed as he tried to recall where he'd last seen the odd figures. Then, as a crash sounded from the Lord's office, Natsu's eyes widened with realization.

 _Those are the demons that Hades could summon!_

He gave stealth the middle finger as, with flaming fists, he roared back towards the Lord's office. He burned the door to cinders and found Lucy standing against the wall, her keyring in hand, as she faced Chalcedony on the other end of the room. His desk had been flipped, scattering papers all over the carpet that seared beneath Natsu's shoes. He noticed that one of Lucy's gloves was thrown away, revealing her Fairy Tail stamp.

"You two are Fairy Tail—I had a feeling," Chalcedony smirked, raising a fist. One of his rings shone particularly strong as he continued, "Who are you, really?"

"Lucy Heartfilia, of the Heartfilia Conglomerate," she answered immediately, then clapped a hand over her mouth with shock. "You're wearing a Truth Charm!" she accused, pointing at the ring. His smirk widened as he angled his hand better for them to see. The offending ring was marked by a pair of red lips, and it sat next to another charm with a crescent moon—Sleeping Charm, most likely.

"Just a measure for when I do business negotiations, to make sure they're not selling me lies," he said calmly. "But I do have stronger magic in place as a measure against wizards such as yourselves." He reached into his coat and pulled out a short wooden magic wand. It glowed with energy before taking on a purple and red hue. Natsu detected noise from right behind him and whirled around as the wreckage of the door and wall became a looming violet figure.

"Open, Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!"

Taurus came into the human world with a big bang—well, more like a crash of his ax, but it's the same thing in essence. The demon was rent down the center, but that didn't do anything but split it into _two_ destructive demons. Natsu was more than ready to fight them before he caught sight of the Lord making a break for it through a back door in his office.

"Go after him! We can handle these creeps," Lucy told him. Natsu nodded and gave chase. The back door took them out into the streets again, and the man growled in displeasure as he saw Natsu's firelight blazing behind him.

"You can keep running if you want," Natsu called to him. "The mission's always more fun with an ass-kicking involved."

"That magic of yours… I suppose you're the Salamander?"

"Natsu Dragneel, a.k.a. the son of the Fire Dragon King, Igneel." He could still feel the charm working on him—it must've been powerful to do so with the distance—but it's not like he ever told lies. "A.k.a. the one that'll turn you in, Chancey-donald."

"Chalcedony!" he snapped before turning into an alley and disappearing. Natsu followed him in and immediately had to dodge the fist of another demon. He swept to the side and kicked off from the wall, lighting his foot on fire.

"Fire Dragon's Talon!" He bashed the demon down to the ground before dealing an iron fist to its face, smashing it to bits. He could still smell Chalcedony, and his path led towards the city's train station. Just the thought of it made Natsu sick, but he fought back the urge to throw up until he spotted the Lord within the late-night boarding crowd. Chalcedony saw Natsu and raised the wand again. _Not around this many people! Someone could get hurt!_

A demon surged up from the ground's tiles, causing those nearby to scatter. Natsu skidded to a stop at the base of the platform—he couldn't attack, not until the area cleared. His fire wasn't exactly known for being precise. The Lord knew this, if his smirk was anything to go by, and the demon raised its fists. He prepared to take a hit when a loud noise rang from somewhere above, then there was a flash as the demon completely froze over. Natsu didn't miss a beat.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

The demon shattered into chunks of black-speckled ice that disintegrated into the air. A couple of seconds later, Gray hit the ground next to him, his bazooka disappearing. "Who says I needed your help, Ice Prick?" Natsu snapped. "We're friends and all, but you make me feel like a goddamn damsel in distress." Gray rolled his eyes.

"How about because you were going to take a hit to protect these people? And while your nobility is something I appreciate, I know these demons, weak as they are, hit hard, and I don't want to see you severely injured because I care about you." Gray's eyes widened and he covered his mouth. "What the hell?"

"Truth Charm," Natsu deadpanned. "And we do not speak of this again."

"Agreed." He returned his attention to Chalcedony, who was waving the wand furiously to no effect. "Those things only hold so much magic, and it looks like the ethernano…and your luck…just ran out," he smirked, punching his fist into his palm. "Ice Make—"

"Sleeping Charm activate!" he spoke over Gray. Waves of pink energy flowed from the now-glowing ring and to Natsu and Gray. Gray was more affected—maybe those stupid rings didn't have as much an effect on Dragon Slayers, who knows—but Natsu lost consciousness for a few seconds. When he refocused, he saw the train pulling away from the station at high speed. He wished he had Happy, but since the mission sounded easy on paper, he suggested that the cat spend the night with Wendy—thusly, Charla—instead.

"Come on!" Natsu shouted over the clacking train tracks, seizing Gray's arm. He ran forward and leapt off the platform as far as he could go, still missing the train by a few dozen feet. He gripped Gray tightly around the shoulders and threw his other arm behind him, releasing a plume of flames that propelled them forward. It only took them a short distance before gravity hit, but it allowed Natsu to grab onto the railing of the last car and pull them on. Two seconds later, Natsu was clinging to the railing for life as his motion sickness kicked in tenfold.

"Useless," Gray sighed, stripping away his shirt to bare his pale upper body. Black tattoos surfaced from beneath his skin and wound around his arm and face, bringing his hair up into spikes. He pounded his fist into his palm before grabbing the railing. "Ice Make: Silver!"

There was a deathly screeching sound as pillars of ice rose from the tracks and wheels, forcing them to stall. The freezing trail continued all around the train like an Ice Magic nuke before reaching the first car, where it jammed into the railing in front like a crowbar. The train was nearly completely encased in Gray's ice, only the windows and top being free—the rest was forcefully welded to the tracks, forcing it to stop. As soon as the last bit of wind left Natsu's face, he leapt back to his feet. "I'm all fired—"

"Save the stupid catchphrase for _after_ the mission!" Gray interrupted as he yanked open the door to the car. The door ahead had been frozen, but Natsu had extensive practice in melting Gray's ice. He smashed through and into the other car, where another pair of demons awaited. The Fairy Tail wizards didn't spare them a moment.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

"Ice Devil's Zeroth Destruction Bow!"

The demons went flying on either side of the car, smashing through the walls and going rolling across the sandy plains around them. "I thought you said he was out of magic!" Natsu accused.

"He was—I couldn't feel any magic left in the wand," he said defensively. "Those demons might've been made beforehand." Natsu thought back to the mansion and frowned.

"Could these things be sealed in paintings, or in like wall quilts and stuff?"

"I don't know, maybe if they're enchanted? Why?"

"He might have a lot of them made beforehand."

"How many are we talking about?"

"Well, they shouldn't be a problem if Erza and Lucy are still in Charoite," Natsu said. "Even then, we don't have time to worry about it right now." Natsu blasted the ceiling of the car apart with a Fire Dragon's Roar, then used his hands to propel himself through the hole and onto the roof. He saw Lord Chalcedony standing some ways from the train, still frantically trying to get the wand to work. He grinned and let out a triumphant whoop as he leapt towards him. "Nowhere left to run, Calcified-Dordogne!"

"No!" he shouted, raising the wand. It pulsed with Dark Magic before Natsu kicked it from Chalcedony's hand, sending it spinning end over end to Gray's waiting hand as he pulled himself through the hole in the ceiling. Chalcedony fell to his hands and knees, his body heaving, the scent of terror radiating from him—typical things for opponents of the Salamander.

"M'kay, droopy-eyes, let's cuff this guy and—"

"It's not over, Natsu," Gray interrupted, holding up the wand. "Zeref's brand of Dark Magic is coming off this thing in waves."

"What?" he snapped before returning his attention to Chalcedony. The man was now writhing on the ground and foaming at the mouth, eyes rolled back to the whites. Natsu stepped back as Dark Magic radiated from him in waves, then a bestial roar came from his mouth as his jaw unhinged, making room for two extra rows of extra sharp teeth. He vaguely reminded Natsu of that Doriate creep back in the Sun Village, but the resemblance grew as he suddenly bulked out, tearing his finely tailored suit with bulging muscles that were abruptly swinging down at Natsu.

He jumped back as his fists collided with the loose dirt, throwing up a widespread haze of dust that clouded his vision and nose. He lit his fists to light the way, and the flames casted a ghastly glow on the rushing behemoth. He crossed his arms and easily took the impact of his fists, then dug his heels into the ground before pushing back. Chalcedony went flying and rolling across the ground while Natsu cracked his neck.

"As much as I'd like to stick around and fight…no, wait, I don't want to. But I'll get a lot of pleasure out of shoving my Fire Dragon's Iron Fist in your face, Chalcedony!" Chalcedony struggled to his feet, but it seemed he was driven by magic alone, because he was cumbersome and unsteady, unable to match Natsu's speed as he jumped, dodging a hasty hit, and planted his knuckles dead-center in his previously smarmy face. Flames erupted from the point of contact, then a larger wave of lightning. The Demon-Hybrid had no chance and immediately collapsed into a heap right after. Natsu let his flames die out with a sigh.

"Woo! I could really use something to eat after spending all that magic."

"Not for a while yet, flame-brain." Gray had encased the wand in a faceted ice sphere enchanted with his Ice Demon Slaying Magic. "I'll go contact the Council in town. You keep an eye on him."

"Why do I have guard dog duty?" he complained. Gray raised an eyebrow.

"Because out of all the people in the Guild, you're the _last_ one anyone wants to be talking to the Council, especially after your drag moment when Erza was— And smash that stupid Truth Charm of his too," he added crossly before starting the trek back towards Charoite.

Rune Knights finally showed up after what felt like hours, alongside Erza and Lucy and a young woman about their age with silky violet hair and teary eyes. A soldier held her back as they locked anti-magic cuffs around Chalcedony and dragged his limp, mutated body up. "Natsu, this was the one who created the request," Erza said, catching his attention. "She's Dendritic Chalcedony's daughter, Sphene."

"I thought my father was up to no good," she said softly, dabbing at her eyes with a lacy handkerchief. "Especially when I heard odd voices one night from his office. They didn't sound entirely…human. They were making a deal: his money for their protection. After that, he started wearing his charms all the time, and whenever a deal went bad, he used the wand to summon these nasty monsters… But I didn't think he would actually turn into one!" she wailed. "Can he be returned to normal?"

"The last person affected by this is fine now, so rest assured, your dad will come back to you," Lucy beamed, taking her hands. "Plus, all those other monsters were taken out by us as well some time ago, so there's no chance of a repeat happening." She sniffled and nodded.

"I can't thank Fairy Tail enough."

"'s all in a day's work for us," Natsu said glibly.

"On the other hand," came a deep voice behind them, and the Fairy Tail wizards turned to the knight captain standing with arms crossed—coincidentally, the same knight captain from Magnolia—and an unamused expression, "you did destroy a newly built train and its three tons of freight—"

"Welp it's time!" Natsu interrupted in a cry, and he took Erza and Lucy's arms before footing it. They caught on quickly, being Fairy Tail wizards and all, and as they saw Gray walking towards them, "Sorry I took so long to return, I had to—wait, why are we—" they pulled him into the sprint as well.

 _"_ _Fairy Tail!"_ The captain's shout chased them into the night.

* * *

Natsu returned home to see Happy sleeping on the couch. He went to the river out back to wash the dust off and burn the remains of the suit to cinders, but as he trudged back up the path to their home, he found himself nostalgic of something he hadn't done in a while. With a wicked grin on his face, Natsu broke into a run back to Magnolia, and his sandaled feet quickly took him down Strawberry Street.

Lucy was in the bathroom as he climbed through the window (it wasn't locked! The relief was so great he felt like crying—something still remained normal in their lives) but he couldn't smell bathwater or soap, meaning she had already cleaned up. He idled at her desk but found that she didn't have much at all written for her book. _Maybe she was distracted, like I was,_ he thought absently. The bathroom door creaked open, startling him from his thoughts.

"Natsu!" Lucy exclaimed, but it wasn't with annoyance or frustration like usual. In fact, if he had to classify her expression, it looked…relieved? He shook it off. "Back to old habits, I see."

"You know what they say about old habits," he grinned. Then his eyes zeroed in on some bandages around her upper left arm, a bit hidden by her blue nightshirt. "Those demons hurt you?"

"A little," she said, rubbing the wound. "But I'm tough, ya know. I kept fighting," she added with a confident smile, raising a fist. Natsu chuckled at the thought. "But honestly, I wish the mission had been as easy as going to a ball, exposing that creep, and coming home. It's practically sunrise already!"

"Where's the fun in that?"

"Always the thrill-seeker," she sighed good-naturedly.

"So what do we do with this?" Natsu asked, holding the Truth Charm out in his palm. Lucy looked at it with wide eyes.

"Natsu! Why did you keep it?"

"Seems like a good way to get some dirt outta the Ice Princess to blackmail him later."

"Ugh, you two are so annoying. Although it's cute in a yaoi sort of way," she said offhandedly. As soon as she realized what she said, her face turned a bright shade of red.

"Yow-wee? What's that supposed to mean?" he inquired curiously as Lucy buried her face in her hands. She suddenly lashed out and tried to snatch the ring from his hand. He cackled and held it above his head, watching her try to jump to reach it. "Hey, Lucy, what else do you think of the Ice Princess?"

"His stripping habit is—ah!—irritating," she panted as she struggled to grab his arm. "But I'd be lying to say I didn't enjoy the show. I'm a girl after all."

"Wait, what? You _like_ seeing Gray naked?" He wasn't so much upset as ready to plot ways to take Gray out of the picture. Lucy's cheeks burned as she fisted her hands on her hips.

"Why do you care?"

"Because I—" Shit, that charm worked both ways. He moved to throw it before her small fingers wrapped around his wrist. She was a little dainty, but with her whip training, she had a good grip.

"You're jealous?" Lucy questioned with her brow furrowed. He sweated a little beneath that state.

"Y…Yeah, I'm jealous." She paled a little, the embarrassment leaving her expression. He didn't understand why right away.

"Is it because you're…with me…?" Her voice had dropped to a small whisper, and Lucy barely ever whispered. His instincts were telling him something was amiss, but the Truth Charm kept his lips moving anyway.

"Because I'd rather you looked at me that way. Because I love you," he declared, all thanks to some evil Lord's stupid charm. He winced, expecting her to lash out, or laughter, or even a refusal—that last one would hurt, but it would be better than the sudden silence that descended on them. The wind stopped blowing, the insects stopped moving, and Lucy stared at him with wide eyes. It was the kind of surprise a deer had before getting eaten by a Vulcan.

"Natsu…no," she said quietly, her voice flat as she tried to restrain herself. "Don't."

"Don't…what?" he said tentatively. "Don't…love you?"

"Yes, that!" Her voice rose in anger, but there was sadness mixed in there as well. She pulled away from him with her hands clasped at her chest, as if her heart might beat out of it. He could hear it beating, as a matter of fact—it was going completely nuts. "Natsu, please don't. Mama loved me, so did Aquarius, and Father was fine until his love came back, and they all…"

He just stared at her as she turned away, tears in her eyes.

"They died," she finished in the same flat tone. "I want to believe your strong, that these feelings I have for you—" she swallowed anxiously, "—can mean something, but it's this fear that holds me back. Even the idea of you loving me is frightening. The people I cared about most in the world died, Natsu, and I don't want that to happen to you. So don't." And she turned and retreated into her bathroom, slamming the door shut. He continued staring at the spot she was in before bringing his eyes back to the charm.

"Shit," he muttered, clenching his fist. His knuckles turned white, and there was a satisfying crackle as the charm was reduced to bits and pieces. He made his own retreat through the window, and a night in Magnolia never felt so cold as right then, even to a Dragon Slayer. Of course, he was going to help her, as her friend above all else, but what could he do? He knew that kind of fear well: he had a fear like that long ago, that he would never be able to find Igneel. In the end, he did, and it still gave him nightmares every now and then. Lucy's issue seemed more…subconscious. Well, if she knew about it, she wouldn't have had a problem in telling Natsu off about the Sorcerer's Weekly thing anyway.

But, if there was anything Natsu Dragneel was good for, it was finding a way.

* * *

 **Chapter Notes-** This was supposed to be shorter than the others, because...well, a little background info. I've mentioned before that I come up with everything on the spot, but that's not exactly my philosophy anymore. I know what happens in the current chapter and the subsequent one...that's about it. I fix everything during editing when the story's finished, but I digress. This mission was actually going to be short-short, a little Duke Everlue-type thing where they infiltrated the gala, brown-nosed the Lord a little, and got him arrested. Bing bang boom. But I suddenly got the Action Scene Itch, and it came out like this instead, big battle scene and all, but I at least tried to tie in a little classic "Oh, well, it's Fairy Tail, so"-ending. Shoutout to the Sun Village arc one time!

"Fiore" is Italian for "flower," and Magnolia, Hargeon (Harujion), Clover, and Onibas are flowers as well. So, playing off that, I used my own motif that may or may not have been Steven Universe inspired. The town I mentioned earlier, "Dahlia," where Sabertooth is? Made-up. The canon never names the exact city, so I took one and gave it a florae name. On the other hand, Charoite, Dendritic Chalcedony, and Sphene are all gemstones. There was going to be an opal and tanzanite in there as well, but...budget cuts. Paragraph cuts. Well, the literary equivalent of budget cuts.

Last of this tl;dr segment is the final idea. I had an idea what Lucy's problem would be since her last POV chapter. Since the story nearly takes place right after Tartaros, I figured that she'd still be twisted up about Aquarius, and, grief-stricken, would've blamed herself for it, tying in the deaths of her parents as well into the already blue memory. (What's the use of feeling blue, Lucy?) It's irrational; then again, so is all fear. Friendship love is one thing, but the love that Natsu offered her brought out that primal fear. I'm so on the edge with how I portrayed it in the end, though, but here, I hope you readers get the idea of what I was trying to do.


End file.
